


Memories of the Past, Pains of the Present

by TheNarratorsMuse



Series: Memories [1]
Category: Maria-sama ga Miteru
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-19
Updated: 2014-10-21
Packaged: 2018-02-21 19:45:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 32,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2480219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNarratorsMuse/pseuds/TheNarratorsMuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sakura is an average first year high school student at Lillian Academy. Best friends with Yumi, Sakura's horrific past collides with her happy present. Is Sakura strong enough to endure the pains of the present as she delves into her memories of the past?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introductions

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own, nor claim to own, any characters in this Fanfiction that relate to the anime and/or manga of Maria-Sama Ga Miteru. The only thing I own here are the characters called Sakura and Mizuki...On with the fiction!

"Sakura!"

Sakura turned around to see her friend Yumi running up to her. Sakura stopped and waited for Yumi to catch up to her.

"Mou, Sakura-chan," Yumi complained once she had caught up and the two girls started walking to school together. "You didn't wait for me today!" She said, turning accusingly to Sakura, her dark mocha eyes filled with annoyance and her pigtails swaying as she turned her head.

"Ah! Gomen, gomen." Sakura immediately apologized, realizing what Yumi had said was true. She always waited for Yumi outside Yumi's house, but today Sakura had been so lost in thought that she had walked right by it.

Yumi looked into Sakura's violet eyes, framed by her waist-length, blonde hair and said: "Mou, you never change Sakura." Yumi and Sakura had known each other almost their entire lives as they were next door neighbours, the apartment Sakura shared with her sister Mizuki was beside Yumi's house, and Sakura had always been notorious for ignoring everything around her when she was thinking about something else. "So what were you thinking about this morning?" Yumi asked, as they walked through the front gates of their school called Lillian, and all-girls catholic school.

"You actually." Sakura replied, slowing her pace once they entered the school grounds, walking slowly was preferred here at Lilliam. "You, and the fact that you don't have a grande soeur yet."

"That again?" Yumi asked, looking exasperatedly at her friend who was like an older sister to her."You worry too much Sakura nee-chan, and what about you? " Yumi asked as Sakura shrugged her shoulders at the 'worry too much' comment. "You don't have a grande soeur either."

"I'm different." Sakura stated as they neared the statue of Maria-Sama. "I don't want a grande soeur and don't have one which suits me just fine, you on the other hand want one and don't have one. Besides," she continued before Yumi had the chance to reply. "Aren't you the one who is always complaining that you don't have one yet?"

"Hai, Sakura nee-chan." Yumi agreed sheepishly, using the honorific that showed how close she and Sakura were.

"Told you so." Sakura said, grinning at Yumi's use of the honorific she saved just for Sakura. At that moment the two of them reached Maria-Sama's statue. They put their hands together and prayed, standing side by side.

"Let's go Yumi-chan." Sakura suggested once they were finished.

"Hai." Yumi said enthusiastically, happy that she and Sakura were in the same class together this year. As the two girls walked away they heard a voice yelling after them.

"Matte!"

The two girls turned around simultaneously to see none other than Ogasawara Sachiko walking, quickly but gracefully, up to them.

"Gokigenyo sempai, were you talking to us?" Sakura asked respectfully as Sachiko came up to them.

"Seeing as I came up to and am talking to you now, I would say that I was." Sachiko replied in her cool, guarded voice. "Specifically I was talking to you." She continued, turning to Yumi.

"Ah," Sakura said. "I'll leave you two alone then. See you in class Yumi." With that Sakura bowed to Sachiko, waved at Yumi, turned around and kept walking towards the school and her homeroom class.

Later that morning...

"So Yumi," Sakura asked, leaning against Yumi's desk which was, coincidentally, in front of Sakura's. "What did Sachiko-sama want with you this morning?"

"Eh? Oh, she just wanted to straighten my collar." Yumi said, looking up at Sakura, who seemed more distant than she had been this morning.

"Soka." Sakura said, looking at Yumi. "I should have guessed. Sachiko-sama is always picky about the uniforms of other students. She saw your collar was crooked, fixed it and warned you not to let it happen again right?"

"Hai." Yumi replied, thinking that Sakura's tone had changed slightly when she found out all Sachiko wanted was to fix Yumi's uniform.

"And I got the whole thing in one magnificent shot!" Tsutako exclaimed, appearing out of nowhere and waving a printed photo in Yumi and Sakura's faces.

"Nani?" Yumi looked at the picture and back to Tsutako with an incredulous look on her face.

"Let's see." Sakura reached over and took the picture from Yumi. "Hey, this is really good Tsutako-chan, it makes it look like Yumi-chan and Sachiko-sama are soeurs."

"NANI?" Yumi exclaimed, blushing a deep red. "That's not..."

"I know it's not." Tsutako said, cutting Yumi off and taking the picture back from Sakura. "That's not the reason I showed it to you. I wanted to get your permission to use this photo in the display for the photography club. Of course, I'll have to get the permission of Sachiko-sama as well, but since I found you first I thought I would get your permission before hers. So can I?" She asked, leaning in to Yumi with an expectant glint in her eye.

"H-hai, sure you can." Yumi gave permission as she and Sakura sweat-dropped at Tsutako's insistence.

"Great!" Tsutako exclaimed. "Now we just have to find and get permission from Sachiko-sama." Before Sakura could ask what Tsutako meant by 'we' the class started and the three of them had to take their seats.

After school, the same day...

"Yumi!" Sakura called. It was after school and Sakura had waited an extra hour by the statue of Maria-Sama for Yumi to show up so they could walk home together like they always did, but today, Yumi didn't show up. "Yumi!" Sakura called again, walking through the school grounds and starting to get worried, she couldn't find Yumi anywhere. "Mou, where could she be?" Sakura asked herself as she stopped and stood under a tree in the middle of a clearing a few kilometres away from the Rose Mansion. "Oh well, no helping it." Sakura sighed as she prepared herself for what she was going to do next. She inhaled and exhaled three times before inhaling for the last time. "YUMI!" Sakura bellowed, putting all her energy and force into making herself as loud as she possibly could, which, for some reason, was pretty loud. "YUMI!" She bellowed again. "WHERE ARE YOU!?"

Meanwhile, at the Rose Mansion...

"When did this happen?" Sachiko was looking at the picture from that morning that Tsutako had presented to her with a confused look on her face.

*Does she not remember?* Yumi thought to herself as she sat in the same room as the Yamayurikai, still shocked that Sachiko had asked Yumi to be her petite soeur.

"Wow," Satou Sei, also known as Rosa Gigantea, said in disbelief, ignoring Sachiko's question. "This really does make the two of you look like soeurs." The rest of the Yamayurikai nodded in agreement.

Before Yumi could say anything to these claims, Tsutako's head shot up, a confused look on her face. "Did you hear that?" She asked, straining to catch the sound again.

"Hear what?" Yoshino, a first year and the petit soeur of Rosa Foetida en Bouton asked.

The room fell silent and you could hear someone shouting at the top of their lungs: "YUMI! WHERE ARE YOU!?" Yumi and Tsutako sweat-dropped as they recognized the voice calling Yumi's name.

"Yumi-chan?" Tsutako asked, turning to her friend. "Did you tell Sakura-chan that you were going to be here after school today?"

"Umm..." Yumi thought back to all the conversations she had with Sakura that day. "No, I don't think I did." She concluded sheepishly.

"I thought so." Tsutako nodded her head. "I should call her then." Before anyone could ask what she was doing, she whipped out her cell-phone and hit speed dial. "Hey Sakura-chan," she began talking to the other, hysterical girl. "Yes, Yumi's with me, no, she's fine, yes, she forgot to tell you that she would be staying after school for a little bit." A short pause. "We're at the Rose Mansion." Another pause. "Okay, see you soon." Yumi sweat-dropped again at the number of questions Sakura had asked about her.

"What was that about?" Youko, Rosa Chinensis, asked Tsutako as soon as she had hung up.

"That was Yumi-chan's friend and neighbour, Sakura, going frantic cause Yumi forgot to tell her that she was staying after school for a little bit today." Tsutako explained.

"It sounds like Sakura-chan worries about you a lot Yumi." Shimako, a first year and Rosa Gigantea en Bouton, said.

"Tell me about it." Yumi sighed. "She's always freaking out over the smallest things when it comes to me. Honestly, it's more like she's my older sister instead of my best friend."

"So where is she?" Sachiko asked as she turned to Tsutako.

"She's on her way." Tsutako replied. No sooner were the words out of her mouth then there was a loud, frantic, knock at the door.

"I'll get it." Sei said as she stood up and walked over to the door. As soon as the door opened, with an exclamation of "Yumi!", Sakura burst into the room, immediately tripping over her own two feet and crashing directly into Sei, which sent them both sprawling onto the floor.

"Itte..." Sakura, who had been temporarily knocked out because of the force of the fall, came to, only to find her violet eyes staring into Sei's light brown ones.

"Ara, ara," Sei said, giving Sakura a mischievous smile. "You're very forward aren't you?" she asked as a look of utter shock and mortification crossed Sakura's face.

"Th-th-that's not...I mean...Gomenesai!" Sakura said, leaping off of Sei, her face bright red and the look of shock and mortification still on her face.

"Oh, leave her alone Sei," Youko cut in before Sei could say anything that might either embarrass or scar Sakura even more. "She was just worried about Yumi-san, right?" Youko asked, turning to Sakura who, looking at the floor, just nodded her head, too embarrassed to say anything.

"Mou," Sei said, getting up off the floor. "Way to ruin my fun Youko." This statement made Sakura's face turn an even brighter shade of red, if that was even possible.

"G-g-gomensai." Sakura said again, still staring at the floor.

"Don't worry about it Sa-chan." Tsutako said, using the nickname Sakura's friends had given her once they started high school at Lillian.

"Yea we, well most of us, all know how you get when you freak out and panic." Yumi said, surprised that Sakura somewhat flinched at her nickname, the first time she ever had by Shimako's reckoning.

"Ano..." Sakura said, lifting her head up enough for everyone to see her fading red face, except for her eyes which she kept hidden beneath her bangs. "Yumi-san," Yumi started at the tone, and honorific, Sakura used to address her with. "If you're not done here yet...ano...I'll just...go home...Ja ne." With that, Sakura turned and ran from the room, jumped over the banister, not bothering to run down all the stairs, out the door and away from the Rose Mansion

"Does she do that all the time? Jumping over banisters to skip running down stairs, I mean." Sei asked, rubbing the back of her head in confusion.

"No she doesn't." Yumi answered, still confused as to why Sakura used -san instead of -chan which she normally used as an honorific, if she used one at all.

"Usually she slides down the hand railing." Tsutako added as everyone in the room sweat-dropped, except for Sachiko who, for some reason, still had the same cold, if not colder than usual, expression she had had since Sakura burst into the room.

"I wonder what's bothering her." Yumi said to herself as she turned her attention back to the current, problematic situation of being asked to be Sachiko's petite soeur.


	2. Fight and Flight

Sakura sighed as she walked to school alone, again. It had been a few weeks since she ran out of the Rose Mansion in shame. The day after she had heard from rumours that were spreading around the school that Sachiko had asked Yumi to be her petite soeur, and that Yumi had rejected the offer, which was weird because Yumi absolutely adored Sachiko. Sakura knew better than to ask Yumi why she had turned Sachiko down, so she kept her mouth shut. Sakura was walking to school alone again because, since the day she had panicked over Yumi and found her in the Rose Mansion, Yumi had somehow been roped into helping out with the Yamyurikai's production of Cinderella for the school's upcoming festival so he had been attending practices every morning and after school every day. Sakura knew, but didn't want to admit, that Yumi's involvement with the production was hurting her friendship with Sakura and that it wouldn't be too long before they completely fell out and Sakura would be all alone again.

Sakura sighed again as she reached the statue of Maria-Sama and prayed. Once she was done she picked up her bag and continued her walk to class. *Today, after school, I will apologize to her.* Sakura thought to herself as she walked. Since the day she ran out on the Yamayurikai, she and Yumi had not spoken more than a few words to each other a day and Sakura found herself spending her lunch hours alone under the cherry blossom trees that were her namesake. It hurt Sakura that she and Yumi had grown so far apart in such a short period of time so she had resolved to apologize to Yumi once her rehearsal after school was over.

After School That Day...

Sakura inhaled the afternoon air, calming herself before she confronted Yumi. She was determined to apologize and make for what had happened a few weeks ago. She was also determined to get more than a couple of words out of Yumi in response. Sakura looked at her watch, she was early. She had even had enough time to go home and change out of her uniform.

She was wearing her favourite pair of torn, faded camo jeans, her black sleeveless, ripped Juliet t-shirt, knee-length, lace-up black, platform-like combat boots with a two-inch wide, two-inch thick chunky heel and her black pleather trench-coat that reached down to her knees. All of which she had bought with Yumi on their latest shopping trip together. Her long hair hung loose, wavy today instead of her usual straight and she wore a camo hat to match her pants with sunglasses perched on top.

Just as she was about to open the door and face Yumi, Sakura heard a scream. She recognized who it was and freaked. Heart pounding, fear giving her an amazing adrenaline rush, she ran towards the scream, ignoring the slippery surface she created by crushing the Gingko nuts that had fallen from the trees above her.

Meanwhile...

Yumi was shocked, shocked and scared. She was standing behind Sei while the two of them watched the scene between Sachiko and Suguru, who was the president of Hanadera boy's school and playing the part of the Prince in Cinderella, which was taking place in front of them and the other members of the Yamayurikai.

"She is my fiancée." Suguru was saying. "I'm allowed to touch her in public. We're even allowed to kiss..." With this he leaned forward towards Sachiko, only to get the soles of a pair of black combat boots in the face.

Beforehand...

Sakura was angry, angrier than she had ever been in her entire life. She had watched the whole scene between Sachiko and Suguru from the beginning. She had heard Sachiko's scream, panicked and went to see what was wrong. She was furious when she, hiding in the leaves of the tree closest to the scene, saw that it was the president of the all-boys school of Hanadera, the school where Yumi's little brother went to, who was making a move on Sachiko. She thought it best not to interfere unless necessary, so she just watched from her hiding place. When Suguru leaned in to kiss Sachiko however, that was the last straw for Sakura. She leaped out of the tree in which she was hiding and, forcing herself between Sachiko and Suguru, stuck both her black combat booted feet into his face before landing gracefully back onto the pavement.

Present moment...

"Ow!" Suguru yelled as he pulled back to get away from Sakura. Everyone else, especially Sachiko and Yumi, looked on in surprise. "You little bitch!" He screamed, reaching out for Sakura who jumped away, pushing Sachiko away from her so that she was behind the members of the Yamayurikai. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"If you mean here as in here at this moment," Sakura began, posing in her fighting stance. "I was going to apologize to Yumi-chan for being an idiot a few weeks back, but if you mean here as in here at Lillian, I'm going to school for Senior High."

"Keh," Suguru said, totally relaxed, acting like a bad ass jerk, bust still relaxed. "Doesn't much look like it. Looks more like you joined a Yankee group, which would be sooo perfect for you. I mean, you were disowned by your family for bad behaviour."

"SHUT UP!" Sakura screamed, unexpectedly running at him. "SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!" She screamed as she punched and kicked every bit of that jerk that she could reach as she tackled him to the ground, trench coat and hair flying.

"Sakura!" "Onee-chan!" Shimako and Yumi yelled at the same time. But Sakura wasn't listening. Ignoring them, she continued to punch, kick and otherwise do her best to hurt Suguru while still screaming at him. Yumi couldn't quite make out, yet alone understand, the words that were pouring from Sakura's mouth. The words she did manage to decipher made no sense and went along the lines of:

"Onee-sama...your fault...black and blue...blood...beaten...moving car...shot at...almost died... court... guilty...disowned..." As well as a whole bunch of cusses and swears in between. Yumi didn't even know that Sakura knew such foul language and was quite surprised by it.

"Get off! You're going to kill him!" Sei said as she and Rei ran towards the two who were punching and kicking each other as they rolled around on the ground. After much struggling, the two of them managed to pull Sakura and the president off each other.

"Hanashite! Hanashite!" Sakura screamed as she struggled against Sei's unyielding grip on her arms while Rei released the president who, thankfully, was not struggling. "I'm going to kill him! This is all his fault!" Sakura continued to scream, still struggling against Sei.

"As I recall," Suguru said, brushing himself off and wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth. "The situation you are in, is entirely your fault. After all, if you had just kept your mouth shut about what was going on, none of this would have happened."

"What?" Sakura asked, reducing her struggling to glare and yell at the president. "And live the rest of my life knowing that the murderers of those innocent did not get what they deserved? Not to mention risk having the same thing that happened to me happen to Sachiko? No way! NO WAY IN HELL WAS I GOING TO LET THAT HAPPEN! THERE WAS NO WAY IN HELL I WOULD LET THAT HAPPEN TO SACHIKO ONEE-SAMA!" She finished, stopping her struggling, all her anger evident on her face as the Yamayurikai looked in shock from Sakura to Sachiko and back again.

"Oh? Is that so?" Suguru asked, smirking at Sakura's furious face. "Well I'm sorry to say Ms. "I'll-give-up-everything-I-have-to-save-my-sister-and-some-other-innocent-people" but you've given everything up, including the right to call Sa-chan your older sister." He smiled evilly as Sakura winced at him calling Sachiko 'Sa-chan.'

"Leave." Everyone, except Sakura who had hidden her face beneath her bangs again, looked at Sachiko. "Leave." She commanded again as the president smiled, a little softer this time, again.

"As you wish." He said bowing. With that, he turned on his heel and walked away, leaving a limp Sakura in Sei's arms and a very confused and depressed group of the Yamayurikai, behind him.

"Sakura?" Shimako asked gently, tentatively turning to the limp girl Sei was still supporting. Sakura clenched her fists at the sound of someone's voice. "Sakura?" She tried again when she didn't get a response.

"Hanashite." Sakura said, almost inaudibly.

"Eh?" Shimako asked, not quite sure what Sakura had said.

"Hanashite!" Sakura said, a lot louder this time, as she wrenched herself from Sei's slack grip.

"Sakura..." Sei said as Sakura turned away from the group of worried girls who were staring at her. Sakura clenched her fists. "Sakura..." Sei tried again.

"Leave me alone." Sakura whispered inaudibly.

"Sakura..." Sei repeated.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" Sakura yelled as she spun around to face Yumi and the Yamayurikai, tears streaming down her face. "JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" She repeated, and ran off.

"Sakura!" Shimako called as she attempted to run after her, but Yumi stuck an arm out in front of her.

"Do as she says." Yumi said to the very confused Yamayurikai. "She's hurt, I don't know how or why, but she hurts a lot."

"How can you tell so easily?" Sachiko asked Yumi, seeming to completely ignore the fact that Sakura had even been there in the first place.

"Because," Yumi explained, still looking at the place where Sakura had disappeared from view. "I have known Sakura almost her, and my, entire life and never have I seen her cry. Yet here she is, crying like the whole world's about to end. She is hurt, hurt really bad and I intend to find out why." With that Yumi chased Sakura, leaving three very worried Rosas, two very worried en Boutons, a very worried petite soeur and a cold, not caring, Sachiko behind.

That Night at the Park...

There was a light tapping on Sakura's head. "Sakura-chan? Can I sit here?" Yumi asked, while waiting for Sakura to respond.

Sakura, knowing full well that this was going to happen, turned around, looked at Yumi, looked at the sky and sighed. "If you must." She agreed after about ten seconds of debating whether or not she should tell Yumi if she asked, deciding, and accepting, that she had to.

Yumi sat down and looked at her best friend. Sakura was sitting on her favourite bench, staring at the star-speckled sky. She had changed out of her "I'm-gonna-kick-your-butt-cause-I'm-a-bad-ass-Yankee" attire and into a pair of blue jeans and a black Juliet hoodie that matched the t-shirt she had worn earlier. After staring at Sakura for a minute Yumi looked at the sky with Sakura, wondering how she should start to ask her friend what was wrong.

"I suppose you want to know don't you?" Sakura asked, not looking away from the sky and breaking the somewhat uncomfortable silence that was hanging like a fog between them.

"Onegai." Yumi said, not sure of what else to say.

"Then I will tell you." Sakura said as she began her long and painful story.


	3. A Secret Past

Yumi sat on a park bench, the same one Sakura was sitting on the day she and Yumi met for the first time, as she listened to her best friend tell her all the horrible things that had happened to her when she was but a child.

"So," Sakura was saying "You have probably already figured out that Sachiko-sama and I are sisters, Sachiko being the older sibling."

"Yea," Yumi nodded in confirmation. "Demo, I don't understand how, you two look nothing alike."

Sakura gave a half-hearted laugh at that. "That's because, after I was disowned and moved in with Mizuki Kusumoto, I dyed my hair and got violet-coloured contacts."

"But why?" Yumi persisted, not understanding why Sakura would not want to look as beautiful as her elder sister, not that Sakura wasn't already beautiful; it just confused Yumi why she would not want to look like her sister, her own flesh and blood for crying out loud.

"Because I wanted nothing to do with the Ogasawara name, nor with Sachiko-sama, not after what they did to me."

"What exactly did they do to you though?" Asked Yumi. "I mean, you probably had a pretty good life if you were an Ogasawara."

Sakura gave another half-hearted laugh. "Yes I did have a fairly good life, better than most people's anyway," Sakura explained. "I had a caring father and mother and an onee-chan whom I adored, and thought adored me too, demo, I was wrong. You see one day I was wandering around the house at night, believe me or not when I tell you this, but I was lost when I got up to get a drink of water. Anyway, I was wandering around trying to get back to my room, when I passed a crack in an open door and heard Tou-san, my uncle, Suguru's father, and Oyaji-san talking."

"What were they talking about? Wasn't it just old man talk that happens between a father and a grandfather?" Yumi asked, confused as to why a conversation between two men would set Sakura up for hardship and, later, disownment from her own family.

"That's what I thought it was at first, so I paid no attention to it, that is, until I heard the word 'murder' come from Oyaji-san's mouth."

"Murder?" Yumi asked in surprise.

"Mmm." Sakura said, nodding her head in affirmation of her claim. "I listened more attentively after that and, with a five-year-old's brain, figured out that they were plotting some assassinations to get back at, and hopefully beat down, a rival company."

"No!" Yumi gasped. "So what happened then? What did you do?"

"I did the only thing I thought I could do." Sakura replied heavily, "I ran, and told everything, to my onee-sama."

*Flashback*

"Onee- chan, onee- chan!" Sakura called as she knocked on her sister, Sachiko's, bedroom door. It amazed her that she had been able to find her sister's room and not her own in the dark hallways of the Ogasawara Mansion.

"Mmm..." was the reply Sakura got, so she went in and closed the door behind her.

"Onee- chan, onee- chan!" Sakura said as she gently shook her elder sister, trying to get her to wake up.

"Mmm...Sakura-chan!" Sachiko said, poking her bed-head out from beneath the covers and giving her little sister an annoyed look. "What is it now? Did you get lost again?" Sachiko then looked at the clock on her bedside table, noticing that it was two in the morning, and groaned again. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" She asked her sister, rather annoyed that Sakura seemed to never be able to find her own room in the dark but somehow managed to always find Sachiko's room.

"Onee- chan..." Sakura said, looking up at her sister with fearful, tear-stained eyes, a colour that matched Sachiko's own tired, irritated ones, that Sachiko had never seen on her little sister before.

"Sa-chan..." Sachiko said, her voice softening and laced with real concern as she used the nickname that she, and only she, used for Sakura. "What's wrong? Come sit up here and tell me." She said, and Sakura climbed into the bed and snuggled up close to Sachiko, tears beginning to leak from her eyes.

"Onee-chan..." With that Sakura burst into tears, much to the surprise and dismay of Sachiko who just let her cry until she was calmed down enough to make coherent sentences.

"There, there," Sachiko said, as she rubbed the back of her little sister in an attempt to calm the hysterical five-year-old. Sachiko was only a year older than Sakura, but she acted as though she was seven or eight years older. "Now tell me what's wrong." She said as Sakura's sobs ceased and she was able to talk without sobbing. Immediately she told her sister everything that she had gleaned from the accidental overheard conversation between their father, uncle and grandfather about the murders and assassinations planned for the next week. All throughout Sakura's explanation Sachiko did not once look surprised, nor did she ask any questions. "Go back to bed." Sachiko ordered once her sister had finished. "And do not tell anyone what you have just told me."

"Demo..." Sakura began, then stopped at the expression on Sachiko's face. She had never seen this expression on her onee-chan before, it was a look of terror, pure and utter terror. Whether it was for Sakura or herself, Sakura did not ask. Instead, she left the room and did as her onee-sama told her to do.

*End Flashback*

"So?" Yumi asked. "What happened after that?"

"What else?" Sakura replied. "I did as onee-chan told me to. I went back to bed and kept my mouth shut. Neither of us talked about it at all, we acted like it had never had happened."

Sakura sighed. "We thought we were home-free as nobody confronted us about it, at least not until that day."

"That day?" Yumi asked, repeating the words her friend had just said.

"Mmm." Sakura nodded her head. "That day, three nights after I had heard the murder plans, all hell broke loose. I was pulled away from my piano lesson with onee-sama by Kaa-san who said that Tou-san wanted to talk to me. I found out that when Kaa-san said that Tou-san wanted to talk to me, she meant that he wanted to beat me then explain that Suguru had overheard me tell onee-chan everything I had heard by accident and had run and told his father, my father's brother, who immediately told Tou-san that I was a bad girl and had been eaves-dropping on their conversation three nights previously."

"He beat you?" Yumi asked, not liking the direction her friend's story was taking at all.

"Yeup, that day, the day after, the day after that. Soon his beating of me, to make me keep my mouth shut, became a daily habit, just a painful part of my everyday life. What hurt the most was not the whip or the cane, it was the fact that onee-chan and Kaa-san knew about it and did nothing to stop it."

"That's horrible!" Yumi exclaimed "they're your family, they should have done something."

"Mmm, onee-chan wanted to do something but Kaa-san forbade her to even talk to me until the matter was resolved, and I kind of agreed with her once onee-chan told me, secretly of course, what Kaa-san had told her."

"Why?" Yumi asked "Why would you agree with her if contact with your onee-sama was forbidden?"

"Because," Sakura explained. "If onee-chan did anything to stand up for me, she would be given the same treatment."

"Soka, so you were beat on a daily basis, what happened next?"

"Well, that's the worse part." Sakura said, sighing.

"There's something worse than what was happening to you at that time?" Yumi asked incredulously.

Sakura sighed again. "Yea, well I began to get really scared, I was beaten on a daily basis for at least two years and I wanted to tell someone about what was happening to me, and who was responsible for the murders of at least ten workers and two businessmen."

"So, did you?" Yumi asked.

"Mmm...I did." Sakura affirmed as she continued to stare at the ceiling.

*Flashback*

Sakura was sitting on a swing in the neighbourhood park, crying, with new cuts and bruises on her face and back. She was just about to get up and go home when she saw a pair of black dress shoes come into her field of view. Sakura looked to see the face of a young woman, maybe seventeen or eighteen, dressed in slacks and a blazer, her long blonde hair hung in front of her dark violet eyes that looked pityingly down at Sakura.

"What's the matter sweetie?" The woman asked. "You shouldn't be in this place this late at night." When Sakura didn't answer the woman just sat on the swing beside Sakura's and the two of them sat there in silence.

"Sakura..." Sakura said, breaking the silence.

"Hmm?" The woman asked, looking at Sakura and, for the first time, getting a good look at her bruised, tear-stained face.

"Watashi...Sakura." Sakura repeated, giving the woman her name. "Anata?" She asked, looking at the woman with her ocean-blue eyes that matched her sister's.

"Watashi Mizuki, Mizuki Kusumoto." The woman replied. Sakura merely nodded and looked back at the ground.

"What happened to you?" Mizuki asked Sakura, whose head shot up and her eyes filled with fear. "It's okay," Mizuki assured her, seeing the look of terror on the seven-year-old's face. "You can trust me."

"Can I?" Sakura asked. "You won't tell anyone?" She persisted at the look of confusion on Mizuki's face.

"No, I won't tell anyone." Mizuki assured her.

*End Flashback*

"So, what happened then?" Yumi asked her friend as she finished telling her about the first time she met her foster-sister.

"I told her everything." Sakura stated simply.

"Everything?"

"Everything. The murder plans, the actual murder and everything that had been happening to me for the past two years."

"What did she do then?"

"Well, she was not about to let this go unanswered for, so we started to meet in secret and she came up with a plan. I found out that she was a free-lance reporter for the Tokyo Times newspaper. She started poking around, probably in places where she shouldn't have been, and came up with enough factual evidence to write a column in the next issue on what was going on in the Ogasawara household. Obviously, Tou-san figured out that I was the one who told Mizuki most of what she was going to write and I knew this."

"So what did you do?" Yumi asked.

"The only thing I could do." Sakura replied. "I moved in with Mizuki until the matter could be sorted out. It didn't work out quite the way we planned though."

"What do you mean?"

Sakura sighed again. "I was out walking one day, heading towards Mizuki's apartment, when I was grabbed from behind and gagged. I was pulled into a black BMW and we drove off. As we were moving, we began to slow down one of the men in black who had grabbed me opened the door of the vehicle while the other man threw me out of the car."

"They threw you out of the car while it was moving?"

"Hai, they threw me out and drove off. I had no idea where I was, I knew I was still somewhere in Tokyo, but I didn't know where exactly I was. I took my gag off and began to wander around trying to get my bearings. Unfortunately for me that didn't happen. I don't know from where they came, but I immediately heard gunshots and felt the bullets dig into my flesh."

"No way!" Yumi exclaimed, unable to believe the fact that, when her best friend was only seven or eight, she was shot at.

"Hai, I was shot at and then left alone after another group of men, wearing exactly the same thing as the men who captured me in the first place, came and beat me up and left me in the street to die. Somehow I managed to get myself back to Mizuki's apartment and collapsed outside her door."

"So what happened after that?" Yumi asked, fearing the worst for her friend.

"Well, when I came to, I was in a hospital and Mizuki was sitting beside my bed. She told me that she had found me bruised and bleeding in front of her door and took me to the hospital where they told her that I had been beaten and shot at. She said I was lucky that the bullets they used were rubber and that I was lucky to be alive; I had lost so much blood that I almost died."

"No!"

"Yes, after I got out of the hospital Mizuki did some more digging and found out that it was my father who had ordered that I be attacked and killed. She added that to her unpublished column and once it was published I hid and we waited until the hearing."

"Hearing?"

"Hai, once the press and many others found out about what was happening to me and who the murderers of the workers and businessmen were, the public demanded that the Ogasawara men go to a formal, public hearing."

"To prove that what was happening to you and that the three Ogasawara men were the murderers?" Yumi asked.

"Exactly." Sakura stated.

"So? How did the trial go?"

"Better than either I or Mizuki expected it to. The Ogasawara's were tried, Mizuki and I testified against them, and they were found guilty under the charges of murder and child abuse. Of course, our testifying against them caused more harm than help when it came to me."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that after the hearing was over, the Ogasawara's got their hands on me while I waited for Mizuki to come out. I was beaten, yelled at and immediately disowned, onee-chan watched and didn't do anything about it and that's what hurt me the most. After that Mizuki became my guardian, I cut off all ties with my family, changed my appearance to pass off as Mizuki's younger sister and I never saw onee-chan again, not until that day that she fixed your scarf for you."

"I'm sorry," Yumi said, now looking at the floor. "I didn't mean to cause you so much pain."

"It's not your fault," Sakura sighed as she finally sat up. "I should have told you sooner. I just didn't expect her to be at the same school as me after such a long period of time." Yumi reached over and hugged her best friend who was in so much pain and Sakura hugged her back.

"I won't become her petite soeur if you don't want me to." Yumi said as Sakura buried her face in Yumi's shoulder. "I don't want to cause you any more pain than you've already endured." Sakura looked up at her friend who was smiling down at her.

"No," Sakura said as she pulled herself out of the hug. "Become her petit soeur, it is what you want right? Don't worry about me, now I know that she's at my school I'm going to have to live with it."

"And by 'live with it' you mean 'completely avoid'." Yumi said, knowing what her friend was like.

"Like the plague." Sakura said smiling as she stood up from the bench. "I'll see you tomorrow at school Yumi-chan." With that Sakura left her best friend sitting there on the bench where she met her best friend, not knowing the pain and suffering she had gone through before they met.


	4. Dinner With Friends Turned Disaster

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own, nor claim to own, any characters in this Fanfiction that relate to the anime and/or manga of Maria-Sama Ga Miteru. The only thing I own here are the characters of Sakura, Mizuki and now Izumi (though you are more than welcome to use their names) On with chapter 4! YAY!
> 
> Warning: Near the end of this chapter is some angsty emo stuff (the only bit that is going to be in this fiction) so be forewarned and don't say I didn't warn you.

In the months that followed Sakura somehow managed to retain her friendship with Yumi, having her best friend over for dinner on the nights that Mizuki had to stay late at the office to finish a story or whatever else the late twenty-year-old did when she didn't come home till 10:00 at night, while also avoiding her biological sister like, as Sakura put it, the plague. However, there were the days and times when Sakura, though try as she might, was unable to avoid Sachiko. It was on such a day that she found herself in the extended presence of her biological sister.

At the Classroom, Beginning of the Day...

"Yuuuu-mi-chan!" Sakura said, jumping in her friend's face as they waited for homeroom to start.

"Nani, Sakura-chan?" Yumi asked looking up at her friend, Sakura was unusually happy today. "What's made you all 'happy go lucky' today?"

"Nandemo," Sakura said, leaning on Yumi's desk. "Just the usual, haven't seen Sachiko all week and Mizuki told me this morning that she's staying late at the office again so I was wondering if you wanted to come over to my house for dinner again tonight? I'm inviting Shimako-chan and Yoshino-chan too. Is that okay?"

"Yea, it's great!" Yumi exclaimed, happy that Sakura's issues with Sachiko didn't stop her from trying to be friends with the other two first years in the Yamayurikai; Sakura had gotten to know them a little bit better because of Yumi's involvement in the Yamayurikai as well as Sakura's friendship with Yumi. When Yumi actually thought about it, this was the first time Sakura had actually tried to make friends with people other than Yumi and Tsutako-chan.

"Great!" Sakura said, happier now that Yumi had agreed to her plan. "I'll stop by the Rose Mansion later and find out what you guys want."

"Okay," Yumi said, smiling at her friend. "Sounds perfect."

After School, at the Rose Mansion...

"Yumi-chan?" Shimako asked as she, Yumi and Yoshino were cleaning dishes at the Rose Mansion, waiting for the Rosas and the other two En Boutons to appear.

"Hai?" Yumi answered.

"Did Sakura-chan ask you to come over to her place for dinner tonight?" Shimako asked, unsure of what Sakura had or had not said to her best friend.

"She asked you too?" Yoshino cut in before Yumi could answer. "She asked me as well. Told me her sister was staying late and she was wondering if I would join her."

"Hai, she said the same thing to me too." Shimako said. "So did she ask you?" She asked, repeating her question to Yumi.

"Actually she asked me this morning before homeroom if it would be okay if she invited you guys as well." Yumi answered, annoyed that Yoshino cut her off the first time.

"Oh, thank goodness." Shimako said, breathing a sigh of relief. "I wasn't sure how to answer her so I told I'd let her know after the meeting."

"I told her the same thing." Yoshino said. "I wasn't sure if she told you Yumi-chan so I was a little reluctant."

"So, did you accept her invite Yumi-chan?" Shimako asked Yumi.

"Of course I did!" Yumi exclaimed. "She's my best friend and, well I'm happy that she decided to invite you guys as well."

"Why?" Yoshino asked, a little confused.

"Well, since I became Sachi- I mean, onee-sama's, petite soeur, things have been a little awkward for us." Yumi explained, trying not to give anything of Sakura's past away to Shimako or Yoshino.

"Why? Because she doesn't have an onee-sama of her own yet?" Yoshino asked.

"Hai, something like that." Yumi said. "Also, Sakura-chan has never really been the one to make friends easily so I think that her inviting you guys to join us is showing how hard she is trying...and how lonely she really feels, even though she will never admit it."

"Never admit what?" At that precise moment, the Rosas and missing En Boutons had chosen to walk through the door. Sachiko was the one who had asked the question.

"Oh, uhh, nandemo." Yumi said, jumping slightly from surprise.

"Yumi-chan," Sachiko said as she and the others sat down while Yoshino served the tea. "I know when you are lying to me, so I will ask again. Who will never admit what?"

Yumi sighed, she should have known that she could never keep anything from Sachiko. "Sakura-chan never admitting how she truly feels. Lately it's like she's been wearing a mask every day and will only take it off either when she is alone or with me or Mizuki." Yumi explained as she sat down beside her onee-sama.

"I see." Was all Sachiko said. After that, the meeting began.

Meanwhile...

Sakura sighed. She was standing outside the front door to the Rose Mansion and could slightly hear bits and pieces of the Yamayurikai's meeting that was going on up on the second floor. She knew she had to go in at some point, if not to confirm Shimako and Yoshino's attendance that night, to find out what Yumi felt like eating. Sakura sighed again as she opened the door and walked inside, her happy mood was about to get ripped to shreds upon hearing, let alone seeing, her biological sister's voice.

"No helping it." Sakura told herself. "You knew what inviting Shimako-chan and Yoshino-chan would entail, so don't go getting yourself worked up about it; it's your own fault." With that Sakura arrived at the door to the meeting room, took a deep breath and knocked.

"Come in." She heard Yumi's voice say from behind the door. With another slow inhale and exhale, Sakura opened the door.

"Oh, Sakura-chan it's you." Yumi said, happy to see that her friend hadn't chickened out and just waited for her outside like she normally did.

"Long time no see." Sei added as Sakura immediately looked down at the floor as soon as she walked in.

"Ano, I just needed to talk to Yumi-san, Shimako-san and Yoshino-san for a minute." Sakura said, not wanting to look at Sachiko so choosing the floor instead. "But if now's not a good time then I can wait." She finished as she turned to leave the cursed room and the presence within.

"It's fine." Sakura froze mid-turn as she recognized the voice who had spoken to her, the first time in eight years. "You three can go talk to her." Sachiko continued as Sakura was still frozen to the spot. "But hurry back once you're done."

"Hai, onee-sama, Arigatou." Yumi said as she, Shimako and Yoshino stood up and followed Sakura out the door. Or rather, Shimako and Yoshino followed Yumi who gently pushed Sakura through the door.

"Sorry about that." Sakura apologized once they were out of the room and the door was closed behind them.

"It's okay." Yumi said, a little concerned that Sakura's mood had sufficiently deflated since that morning.

"Anyway, to cut right to the chase, I wanted to know what you guys wanted to eat tonight, that is," Sakura said turning to Shimako and Yoshino. "If you guys want to come."

"Of course we do!" Yoshino exclaimed.

"Hontou?" Sakura asked, a little surprised at Yoshino's enthusiasm.

"Sure." Shimako agreed, smiling at Sakura. "We just had to figure out if we had a previous engagement before we confirmed it."

"YAY!" Sakura exclaimed, converting back to her original happy state that she had been that morning. "Ureshi! Arigatou!" she said, hugging Shimako and Yoshino then Yumi.

"So," Yoshino said. "Now that that's settled, what are we having?"

"Umm, I actually wanted to ask you guys that." Sakura said a little embarrassingly.

"Well neither Yoshino nor I have had your cooking before, so what would you suggest Yumi-chan?" Shimako asked, turning to Yumi for help.

"Well," Yumi thought for a minute. "I don't really know. Everything Sakura-chan makes is really good. I would have to say, for a full course meal...That is what it's going to be right Sakura?" Yumi asked, turning to her friend.

"Sure," Sakura agreed. "If that's what you want it to be, then that's fine with me."

"Alright!" Yumi exclaimed. "So then, since it's a full-course meal, I would suggest...hmm...ah I know!"

"What?" Yoshino asked, annoyed that it was taking Yumi so long to tell them.

"Onigiri, okonomiyaki, fried shrimp, sushi, sashimi, curry and for dessert..."

"How about I surprise you guys with the dessert?" Sakura suggested, sweat-dropping at how much food Yumi wanted.

"Sounds good to me!" Yoshino said, also sweat-dropping at how much Yumi was asking for.

"I concur." Shimako agreed.

"Alright then," Sakura said. "I should leave now then because it sounds like I have a little shopping to do. If I'm not at the apartment by the time you guys get there just go on in. Yumi's got an extra key and she can show you where everything is."

"Okay!" Yumi agreed to the plan.

"Ja ne." Sakura said, waving as she slid down the hand-rail instead of taking the stairs. "See you in a bit then."

After the Meeting, Sakura and Mizuki's Apartment, 5:00pm...

Yumi was positively ecstatic. Sakura was having someone other than herself over at her place for dinner, and she was making all of Yumi's favourites.

"Sakura-chan!" Yumi called as she knocked on the door. "You there?"

"I don't think she's there yet." Shimako told Yumi as she knocked on the door again.

"What makes you say that?" Yumi asked.

"Because there's the note in front of your face that says so." Yoshino said, pointing to a blue sticky note on the door saying that Sakura would be back in a minute so they were welcome to on inside, Yumi had a spare key.

At that moment the door opened to reveal a very flustered Sakura. "Hey guys," She said as she ushered them into the apartment. "Sorry to keep you waiting, the curry would have burned if I left it beforehand."

"Aren't you supposed to be shopping?" Yumi asked, confused as to why Sakura had left a note on the door when she was still in the house.

"Been there, done that." Sakura replied, showing the girls to the living room where they would be eating. "I suppose you are referring to the note I left? Yea, sorry 'bout that, I forgot to pull it off before I started cooking."

"Well, it sure smells good at any rate." Yoshino said, inhaling the scents wafting from the kitchen, it reminded her of when Rei started cooking.

"Arigatou." Sakura said, blushing a little at the compliment. "You three can have a seat at the kotatsu, I'll be right back with the onigiri and okonomiyaki." With that, she disappeared into the kitchen only to reappear seconds later with a plate of onigiri and a second plate of okonomiyaki which she set on the kotatsu in front of her three friends.

"Itadakimasu!" The four of them said at the same time once Sakura had seated herself and with that, Sakura's dinner with friends began.

Meanwhile, at Mizuki's Office, 6:00pm...

"I'm heading home!" Mizuki said as she walked past the newspaper's secretary, Izumi.

"All right then, have a good night." Izumi said, not taking her eyes off her computer screen.

"You too." Mizuki replied, not at all bothered by the lack of attention from Izumi, Izumi took her work very seriously.

"Oh, Mizuki-san," Izumi called just as Mizuki was about to walk out the door. "A letter arrived for you a short while ago."

"Really?" Mizuki asked a little surprised. "From whom?" It was unusual that she got mail at the office, normally someone would just send it to her mailbox at the apartment.

"I don't know." Izumi said as she handed the brown envelope to Mizuki. "The person who delivered it just said that it was from someone you and Sakura-chan know quite well."

"Arigatou." Mizuki said, taking the letter from Izumi, paling a little. The only person she and Sakura both knew quite well, and the only person who would send a letter to her at the office instead of at the apartment would be...Them.

Mizuki's Car, 6:30pm...

*What do they want now?* Mizuki asked herself as drove home. *They've already managed to get a shortened sentence which is already over and they had gotten rid of Sakura. What more could they possibly want? Unless...* With a dreadful feeling in the pit of her stomach, Mizuki, still paying attention to the road, grabbed the envelope Izumi had given her, ripped it open, read it and crashed into a tree for lack of attention due to pure shock and terror. Her last conscious thought before she passed out was *No, oh God, no...*

Sakura and Mizuki's Apartment, 7:15pm...

The dinner was in full swing, everybody had wonderful things to say about Sakura's cooking and they were all having a good time. Even Sakura, which she herself found surprising. She had never had this much fun with Yumi or Mizuki before, so why was she having so much fun now.

"Ta-da!" Sakura said as she brought out the desert, Yumi wouldn't stop bugging her to tell her what it was so finally Sakura gave in and brought it out.

"Strawberry Shortcake!" Yumi yelled excitedly, leaping up and hugging Sakura who almost dropped it due to the force Yumi used in the hug. Thankfully, Shimako saw this coming and took the cake out of Sakura's hands and set it on the kotatsu before the wonderful cake became mush on the floor.

"Thanks." Sakura said, giving Shimako a grateful smile. "I would have hated to have an hour and a half of work become nothing because it fell on the floor."

"No problem." Shimako said, laughing. "I would have hated it too."

"Well, let's eat it then!" Yumi said, cutting herself a huge slice and digging in while the other three followed suit.

Sakura was in the middle of a bite when she felt her cell phone vibrating against her hip, which made her laugh mid-bite resulting in her spraying cake bits all over the place and choking as she desperately tried to get the infernal thing off.

"Are you okay Sakura-chan?" Shimako asked, patting Sakura on the back as coughed and hacked until she could breathe again.

"Yea," Yoshino said, wiping cake off her face. "What was that all about?"

"Sakura-chan is super ticklish." Yumi explained, laughing at Sakura's misfortune. "So when her phone rings and it's on vibrate, well you've already seen what happens."

As Yumi was explaining this, Sakura had flipped her phone open to read a text message Mizuki had sent her. Her eyes went wide with panic. "Ano, can you guys give me a minute to call my sister?"

"Sure." Yumi said, turning at the concern that laced her friend's tone. "Why?"

"Look at this." Sakura said and showed them the text message.

" the hop." Yumi read out loud. "Got in 2 trbl. Fine. Call me. We need 2 talk. Miz."

"What's that mean?" Yoshino asked, trying to decipher the language Sakura and her sister used via texting.

"Allow me to translate." Yumi said as Sakura went into the kitchen, dialling Mizuki's cell as she went. "I'm at the hospital. Got into a bit of trouble. I am fine but call me because we need to talk, now. Mizuki"

"So then, something happened to Sakura-chan's sister?" Shimako asked, worry lacing her tone.

"You got it." Yumi said, continuing to eat. "But it's nothing to worry about; both Mizuki-san and Sakura-chan are tough, they'll be alright.

"I hope so." Shimako said, still slightly worried for her friend.

In the Kitchen…

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Sakura exclaimed. She had walked into the kitchen, dialling Mizuki's cell phone along the way, and had just finished listening to Mizuki tell her that she had crashed into a tree on the way home from the office.

"I crashed into a tree." Mizuki repeated over the phone.

"I know that!" Sakura replied. "My question is why and how?"

"Well the why is simple, I crashed into a tree because a tree was in my way." Mizuki explained rather nonchalantly. "How is also simple. I got distracted and swerved off the road by mistake."

"How were you distracted?" Sakura asked. "You never get distracted while you're driving."

"I know." Mizuki replied, sighing. "But this was different." Mizuki then proceeded to tell Sakura about the letter Izumi had handed to her earlier that evening and what was contained within.

"NO!" Sakura yelled once Mizuki had finished. "OH GOD! NO WAY! I WILL NOT DO IT!" She continued, forgetting the fact that three of her friends were in the room next door and could hear everything she was saying. She also forgot the fact that Mizuki was holding the phone to her ear and was probably getting an earful of shouting at a loudness of five hundred decimals.

"Sakura..." Mizuki said, attempting to calm the hysterical girl, but to no avail.

"I WILL NOT DO IT!" Sakura repeated, more to herself than anything.

"Sakura..." Mizuki repeated.

"I have to go." Sakura said suddenly. "I'll call you later." With that she hung up and walked out of the kitchen.

In the Living Room...

Yumi, Shimako and Yoshino were continuing to eat as Sakura had insisted they do before she entered the kitchen. They were keeping up conversation with each other when they heard Sakura shouting from the kitchen.

"NO!" They heard her yell. "OH GOD! NO WAY! I WILL NOT DO IT!"

"Is it just me, or is Sakura-chan upset about something?" Yoshino asked, looking towards the kitchen where the shouting was coming from.

"I hope everything is alright." Shimako said, as Sakura continued to yell and shout.

"I WILL NOT DO IT!" They heard her yell again, and then pause. "I have to go." They heard her continue, quieter and definitely not shouting her head off. "I'll call you later." They heard her hang up and a few seconds later she walked out of the kitchen a little paler than she had been when she had gone in.

"Is everything all right Sakura?" Yumi asked, standing up.

"Yes, everything's fine." Sakura said, seeming to be slightly out of it. "I'm just not feeling very well. I'm sorry, could you all leave please?"

"Yes of course." Shimako said as she and Yoshino stood up and joined Yumi.

A Few Minutes Later...

"Thanks for coming you guys." Sakura said as Yumi, Shimako and Yoshino headed out the door. "I had fun. I really am sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Yoshino said, walking out the door into the hallway. "I know perfectly well what it is like to feel just fine one minute and then like total crap the next."

"Thanks." Sakura said, forcing a small smile.

"Don't worry," Shimako said, pulling on her coat and joining Yoshino out in the hallway.

"Yes," Yumi agreed. "You just feel better okay?"

"Hai." Sakura replied.

"Okay then," Yumi nodded her head and joined Yoshino and Shimako out in the hallway. "Feel better and we'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay." Sakura said as she waved and watched them disappear around a corner at the end of the hall.

Once Yumi and the others had left, Sakura closed the door and went back into the kitchen. She then proceeded to rummage through the cupboards until she had found the Swiss Army knife Mizuki had given her for her birthday the year before. She closed the cupboard doors and went into the shower, sitting on the floor of it and letting the cold water run down her face and soak into her clothes.

She took the knife in her right hand and held out her left, palm up. Taking a deep breath to calm herself for what she was about to do, she raised her right hand, knife blade gleaming in the fluorescent light from the overhead light-bulb, and brought the blade down in one quick motion, leaving a tiny, shallow cut on her wrist. She immediately saw blood and began to feel queasy; she hated blood and sometimes fainted from looking at the tiniest drop of it. Before she passed out, she stuck her hand under the shower and let the blood run and join with the water as her vision blurred and went black.


	5. At The Hospital

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: See Chapter One

Lillian, Two Days later...

Yumi was staring into space, again. It had been two days since she, Yoshino and Shimako had gone to Sakura's house for dinner. Two days since Sakura yelled her head off into her phone and two days since Sakura, for unknown reasons, rushed Yumi and the others out of the apartment. Sakura had not been to school at all since that night and Yumi was getting worried.

"Yumi?"

Yumi jumped at the sound of someone almost yelling her name. She turned her head back from the window she had been staring out of and faced the members of the Yamayurikai who were looking at her expectantly. "Nani?" She asked, wondering why they were all looking at her.

"I asked you what you thought about the game idea." Sachiko said, looking at Yumi and wondering what was bothering her petite soeur so much.

"What game idea?" Yumi asked as the Yamayurikai members sweat-dropped. Yumi hadn't been paying attention at all.

"Oh, never mind." Yoshino said exasperatedly. "You obviously have been in la-la-land this pat half hour."

"Gomen." Yumi said, looking down and feeling bad for letting her mind wander.

"It's Sakura-san, isn't it?" Shimako asked, surprising everyone, especially Yumi.

"Yes, demo, how did you know?" Yumi asked, lifting her head back up to look at the composed, yet slightly worried face of Shimako.

"It's obvious she's the one you're worried about," Shimako explained. "She hasn't been to school for two whole days and nobody knows where she is or what happened, even us who were the last ones to see her don't have a clue."

"Is that true Yumi-chan?" Sachiko, who had been looking at Shimako, asked as she turned her gaze to Yumi.

"Hai, onee-sama." Yumi answered, looking out the window again. "Sakura-chan hasn't come to school and I haven't gotten word of her from Mizuki or Sakura-chan herself, which isn't like them. I can't help but worry that something bad happened to them again."

"Something bad?" Youko, who had been watching and listening to the conversation between her two petite soeurs, asked.

"Mmm." Yumi said nodding her head. "The last time that Sakura-chan didn't come to school for a while, with no word to anyone, was when she and Mizuki-san were in a car accident on their way home from a shopping and dinner trip at night."

"Well then," Sei said, standing up. "Why don't we adjourn the meeting for now and go see what's up with them."

"EHHH?" Yumi exclaimed.

"I agree," Eriko, Rosa Foetida, and Youko agreed at the same time, as they stood up to join Sei who was waiting at the door.

"D-demo..." Yumi began.

"Look Yumi-chan," Yoshino said, following Rei who had followed Eriko to the door, cutting Yumi off. "You're worried about Sakura-chan and you're not the only one. I think I speak for all of us who see her regularly that we're worried as well. Her disappearing act is defiantly not normal for her and I for one am going to find out what happened and where she is."

"Yes, I will as well." Shimako agreed, joining the group at the door which consisted of everyone except Yumi and Sachiko.

"Well?" Sachiko asked, looking at Yumi. "Are you going to go?"

"It doesn't look like I have a choice in the matter." Yumi said sighing. "Alright, fine, you guys win. We'll go to her apartment first since that's the last place anybody saw Sakura-chan."

"Alright!" Sei exclaimed, pumping the air with her fist as the others sweat-dropped at her enthusiasm. "Let's go see Sakura-chan and drag her back here, whether she likes it or not." She paused when they reached the gates of Lillian. "Yumi-chan?" She asked, without turning around.

"Hai, Sei-sama?" Yumi asked, wondering why the older girl had stopped their march across the grounds.

"How do you get to Sakura-chan's house from here?" She said, spinning around to face them, a sheepish version of her trademark cheshire-cat grin on her face as everyone either sweat-dropped or, in Yumi's case, fall over.

"You didn't know where we were going?!" Yoshino exclaimed, getting right into Sei's face as she did.

"Well, no." Sei said, standing her ground in front of Yoshino's persistence in putting as little space between her and Sei as she reprimanded Sei for being an idiot.

"Enough!" Yumi said, throwing her hands up into the air. "I know where to go, follow me."

So with Yumi, Sachiko walking right beside her, in the lead the group of Yamayurikai members walked the short distance to the bus stop and got on.

A Short Bus Ride Later...

"This is it." Yumi said. The Yamayurikai group had taken the bus from the school and got off at the closest stop to where Yumi said was Sakura's apartment. They were now standing in the hallway, in front of a closed door that led to the interior of the room Sakura and Mizuki shared.

"Does someone want to knock? Or should I?" Sei said, pushing her way to the front of the crowd to stand in front of the door in front of everybody else.

"I'll do it." Yumi said, pushing herself in front of Sei. "Maria-Sama knows what she'd do if she opened her door to see you grinning like an idiot at her." With that Yumi rang the bell. Five seconds later, the normal time it took for Sakura to answer the door, there was no answer. Yumi rang it a second time, to no avail.

"Maybe it's broken." Shimako suggested from behind Sei who was now behind Sachiko who had elbowed her way to stand beside Yumi.

"Mmm." Yumi nodded her head and started to knock. "Sakura-chan?" Yumi called as she continued to knock. "Sakura-chan! Are you there?" She began to pound the door with her fists. "Sakura-chan! Mizuki-san!"

"Ah, Yumi-chan!" The entire group turned to the left to see another girl sticking her head out the door to the left of Sakura's. "Are you looking for Mizuki-san?" The girl asked, ignoring the fact that there were so many other people with Yumi.

"Oh, Kiku-san." Yumi said, recognizing the blue-eyed, blonde university student who used to babysit Sakura when she was little. "Yea we are. Sakura-chan hasn't come to school for the past two days and we were getting worried."

"And rightly you should be." Kiku said, stepping out of the door to reveal that she wearing grey sweatpants and a white camisole, the same thing she wore every day after coming back home from her classes for as long as Yumi could remember.

"What do you mean?" Shimako asked, getting more worried by the second.

"I mean," Kiku said, walking over to stand in front of the group. "That Sakura-chan has been at the hospital for the past two and half days."

"What? Why?" Yoshino asked, standing on her tiptoes so that she could be seen by Kiku from behind Rei.

"I don't know the details." Kiku said shrugging. "All I know is Mizuki comes home at 10:00 two nights ago from the hospital, walks into her apartment and runs back out five minutes later yelling for someone to call an ambulance. Apparently she found Sakura-chan passed out on the floor of their shower, with it running, there were also blood stains on her shirt sleeve and a cut on her arm."

"Demo," Rei asked, "Why would she be passed out then?"

"Sakura-chan hates blood." Yumi said, going a little pale. "She once fainted because she pricked her thumb on a needle during a sewing class and saw a tiny spot of blood on it." She turned back to Kiku. "So is she awake yet? Or is she sick then?" She asked.

"Dunno," Kiku said, shrugging her shoulders again. "You'll have to ask the people at the hospital for that information."

"Which hospital did they take her to?" Yumi asked.

"Same one as always." Kiku said. "Now, if you're finished pounding Sakura-chan's door down, I'm going back to bed."

"Great! Thanks Kiku-san." Yumi said. Kiku just waved as she turned around and walked back to her to room.

"Come on!" Yumi said, walking back down the hall. "Let's go see her."

At the Hospital...

Sakura didn't know what happened. One minute she was sitting on the floor of her shower, the next she's lying down, half conscious and hearing voices that sounded like her sister Mizuki and Yumi, as well as some other, unknown or unrecognizable, voices.

"She's still out." The person who sounded like Mizuki was saying.

"How long has she been out for?" A faintly familiar, but still unrecognizable voice, asked.

"Exactly? I don't know." Mizuki's voice answered. "Demo, she's been out since I found her in the shower."

"Is she alright?" Yumi's voice, filled with fear, squeaked.

"I don't know. Like I said, she's been out for a couple of days; she can't breathe without the hospital's aid, she's got a concussion and she's lost a lot of blood. I'm not sure if she'll be alright."

"I hope she will be." Another vaguely familiar voice chimed in amid a chorus of other such sentiments.

At this point Sakura's head couldn't take the noise level anymore.

"Ugghh..." Sakura moaned, silencing everybody in the room. She blinked her eyes open and saw a most frightening sight. She was lying on a hospital bed with IVs and other medical equipment taped and plastered to her head and arms with nine people standing above her, looking down with mixed expressions of relief and anger.

"Sakura-chan," Sakura turned her head to look at Mizuki who was sitting beside her bed with dark circles under her eyes. "Are you all right?"

Sakura moaned again, ignoring the question, as she sat up and leaned against the headboard of the bed. She ripped the oxygen mask off her face and inhaled air that hadn't come from a tank for the first time in two and a half days.

"Sakura-chan." Mizuki tried again to get the girl's attention.

"I heard you the first time." Sakura replied, her voice quiet and tired. "I'm fine; my head hurts like hell though."

"That's because you got a concussion." Mizuki explained.

"A concussion?" Sakura asked. "How? Oh, right." She said, realization and remembrance dawning on her as she put a hand to her forehead. "So when did I get here?"

"Two days ago." Mizuki answered.

"And let me guess," Sakura said. "You haven't slept a wink since then because you have been so worried about me. I know you onee-chan, you did the same thing last time, after the accident."

"Yes, you're right." Mizuki said, nodding. "Demo, can you blame me?"

"No I can't." Sakura agreed. "Demo, I can blame you for not taking care of yourself while I've been out of commission. So..."

"I know, I know." Mizuki said, standing up. "You want me to go straight home and sleep for a while before I come back."

"Exactly." Sakura said, giving a half-hearted smile because she was tired.

"Fine," Mizuki said, grabbing her coat and heading to the door. "I'll leave, but your friends are going to stay and talk with you."

That was when Sakura actually took notice of the other eight people in the room. She looked around and figured out that every single member of the Yamayurikai was there, why they were there Sakura had no idea.

"Mina-san." Sakura said, surprised to see all eight of the Yamayurikai standing in front of her bed. "What are you doing here?"

"We came to see you of course!" Yumi exclaimed, making her way to the front of the group, Sachiko just slightly behind her, so Sakura could see her.

"I figured that out for myself." Sakura said, smiling a little at Yumi's expression. "What I mean is how did you know I was here? Did onee-sama tell you?"

To Yumi's surprise, and Sakura's un-noticing eyes, Sachiko flinched when she heard Sakura call Mizuki 'onee-sama'. "No," Yumi said, thinking that it must have been a trick of her eye that made Sachiko flinch. "Kiku-san told us."

"Yea, right before Yumi broke down your door from pounding on it looking for you." Youko said, taking Mizuki's chair beside Sakura's bed while the others made themselves as comfortable as they could in the small space of the hospital room.

"You what?" Sakura asked, turning from Youko to Yumi with a surprised look on her face.

"Well I was worried when you didn't answer the door!" Yumi exclaimed, turning red which made Sakura laugh which in turn made the whole room fill with laughter. At that moment a nurse came into the room, saw that Sakura was awake and flipped out. She shooed everyone into the waiting room while she and the other doctors and nurses inspected Sakura.

The Waiting Room, Two Hours Later...

"I hope Sakura-chan is alright." Yumi, who had been pacing nervously since the nurse ushered the group out of Sakura's room and into the waiting area, said.

"She'll be fine." Eriko said, looking up from a magazine to look at Yumi.

"Mmm." Yoshino, who had been playing with her braids for the past ten minutes agreed. "She was laughing after all." That comment made Yumi stop in her tracks, her bangs hanging in front of her face to hide her eyes.

"Come to think of it," Shimako said, also looking at Yumi now. "That's the first time I have ever heard Sakura-san laugh."

"That wasn't her laugh." Yumi and Sachiko said at the same time. Everybody looked at Sachiko like she had two heads.

"What I mean," Sachiko said, doing a good job of composing herself from her slip. "Is that her smile didn't reach her eyes. It was like it was fake."

"No," Yumi said, drawing everyone's attention to her instead of her grande soeur. "That was a genuine laugh all right. Demo, it's not her real laugh. The laugh that I knew was one that lit up a room and made everyone feel good just by hearing it." Everyone, including Sachiko who had been pretending not to hear anything anybody was saying, now had their attention on Yumi who just continued, as if she was talking to herself. "Her laugh was sweet and soft, like silver bells or a set of wind chimes. It was real, genuine... beautiful, like she was whenever that laugh would pass her lips. It would sound out through the air and be carried by the wind to the ears of anyone who cared to listen."

"Wow," Shimako said. "When you describe it that way, it makes me want to hear it." Yumi looked at her and smiled sadly.

"I wish you could hear it too." She said. "Unfortunately you may never have the chance. That laugh, that wonderful laugh, will never be heard again, not so long as Sakura suffers the way she does."

"What do you mean suffers?" Rei asked, but Yumi just shook her head.

"It is not my place to tell you. Only Sakura can tell you so that you would be able to understand. She is my friend and I will not betray her trust. I don't want to do that when so many others that she cherished have done that before me." With that Yumi resumed her pacing, waiting for the time when Sakura would come out happy and healthy.


	6. Pains of the Present

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: See Chapter One

Lillian, One Week Later...

Yumi was fidgeting, the Yamayurikai meeting was taking longer than she expected it to and she was having problems containing her nervousness. Today was when Sakura would be let out of the hospital after her near-death experience. After the Yamayurikai was allowed back into Sakura's room, the nurse said that she would have to stay at the hospital longer because, not only did she have a concussion and a cut on her arm, she also had got a mild case of pneumonia which could turn fatal if something went wrong. So even though Sakura felt totally fine, she was not allowed to leave the hospital until the pneumonia passed. Yumi had visited her every day since that first day when she had seen her best friend lying on the hospital bed as if she was dead and watch her open her eyes to prove her wrong. Yumi thought back to the other day when Sakura told her what really happened to her and why.

*Yumi's Flashback*

*knock**knock**knock*

"Come in," Sakura said when she heard the same knock she heard every day since Yumi and the others came to see her at the hospital. "The door's open."

"Gokigenyo, Sakura-chan." Yumi said as she bounded into the room, carrying a big vase full of red, white and yellow roses.

"Let me guess," Sakura said as Yumi put the vase on the table beside Sakura's bed. "Those are from the whole of the Yamayurikai. Right?"

"How did you know?" Yumi asked, taking her regular seat in the chair beside the bed on the opposite side of the table.

"Easy," Sakura explained, pushing her blonde bangs out of her face so she could see Yumi better. "The red is Rosa Chinensis, white is Rosa Gigantea and yellow is Rosa Foetida."

"Mou," Yumi complained. "You always know this stuff."

"Nah," Sakura said, smiling. "I just use pure, untainted logic."

"Mou." Yumi said again. There was a silence, not an uncomfortable one though, that hung in the room after that. Yumi looked out the window while Sakura looked down at her hands, at her bandaged wrist where she cut it the night she passed out.

"Yumi-chan?" Sakura asked, not looking up from her hands.

"Hai, Sakura-chan, nani?" Yumi asked, looking from the window to her friend.

"Do you want to know what happened to me that night? Why I have this cut, how I got a concussion, why I'm sick? Do you want to know?"

"More than anything." Yumi answered.

"Then I will tell you." Sakura said, still looking down.

*Sakura's Flashback*

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Sakura exclaimed. She had walked into the kitchen, dialling Mizuki's cell phone along the way, and had just finished listening to Mizuki tell her that she had crashed into a tree on the way home from the office.

"I crashed into a tree." Mizuki repeated over the phone.

"I know that!" Sakura replied. "My question is why and how?"

"Well the why is simple, I crashed into a tree because a tree was in my way." Mizuki explained rather nonchalantly. "How is also simple. I got distracted and swerved off the road by mistake."

"How were you distracted?" Sakura asked. "You never get distracted while you're driving."

"I know." Mizuki replied, sighing. "But this was different."

"How was it different?" Sakura asked, wondering what on earth could have distracted her sister enough that she crashed into a tree.

"Well, on my way out of the office Izumi-san gave me a letter. You know who it was from?" Mizuki asked.

"No, who?" Sakura asked, fearing the worst.

"Them." Mizuki said.

"NO!" Sakura yelled, not expecting this. "What did they want?" She asked.

"They want to re-adopt you." Mizuki said, knowing full well that Sakura would not like it.

"What?" Sakura was astounded, why did they want her to come back? Did they find out about her?

"Yea, they want you to come back to the Ogasawara household; be their daughter again." Mizuki explained, saying the written words out loud. "I'm not sure why, but I think that maybe they found out about your *ehem* gifts."

"NO!" Sakura yelled, having Mizuki confirm her suspicions was way worse than anything she could have ever imagined. "OH GOD! NO WAY! I WILL NOT DO IT!" She screamed, refusing to go back to her former family.

"Sakura..." Mizuki said, attempting to calm the hysterical girl, but to no avail.

"I WILL NOT DO IT!" Sakura repeated, more to herself than anything.

"Sakura..." Mizuki repeated.

"I have to go." Sakura said suddenly. "I'll call you later." With that she hung up and walked out of the kitchen and into the living room to face her friends.

"Is everything all right Sakura?" Yumi asked, standing up and facing her friend.

"Yes, everything's fine." Sakura said, hoping that her friends would understand what she was about to do. "I'm just not feeling very well. I'm sorry, could you all leave please?" Sakura asked, mentally crossing her fingers in hope.

"Yes of course." Shimako said as she and Yoshino stood up and joined Yumi.

A Few Minutes Later...

"Thanks for coming you guys." Sakura said as her friends headed out the door. "I had fun. I really am sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Yoshino said, walking out the door into the hallway. "I know perfectly well what it is like to feel just fine one minute and then like total crap the next."

"Thanks." Sakura said, giving a small smile, hoping that no one would notice how forced it was.

"Don't worry," Shimako said, pulling on her coat and joining Yoshino out in the hallway.

"Yes," Yumi agreed. "You just feel better okay?"

"Hai." Sakura replied.

"Okay then," Yumi nodded her head and joined Yoshino and Shimako out in the hallway. "Feel better and we'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay." Sakura said as she waved and watched them disappear around a corner at the end of the hall.

*End Sakura's Flashback*

"After you guys left," Sakura said, toying with a loose thread on her bandage. "I went into the kitchen and took out the Swiss Army knife that onee-sama gave me for my birthday last year. I went into the shower and turned it on cold and sat down in it, that's how I wound up with this mild case of pneumonia, and cut my wrist, thus this bandage. I saw the blood, even though I let the water run over it to dilute it, and began to pass out. Eventually I did and I hit my head against the wall, hard, thus my concussion."

"I don't understand." Yumi said, really confused as to what her friend was telling her.

"Simply put, I tried to kill myself." Sakura explained.

"WHAT?!" Yumi yelled, jumping up out of her seat. "WHY?!"

"Have you not been listening to anything I've said?" Sakura asked, only slightly surprised by her friend's reaction.

"Of course I have!" Yumi said, sitting back down at Sakura's calm tone of voice, like attempting suicide was the most normal thing in the world. "I just don't understand why your biological family asking you to come back would make you want to go join Maria-Sama."

"It's not the fact that they asked me to come back." Sakura explained. "It's their reasons for wanting me back that have me worried. Don't get me wrong," she said at Yumi's questioning expression. "I want to go back, I do. I miss all of them, Sachiko-sama the most, but I don't know if they miss me too and I can't help but wonder what their ulterior motives might be."

"Why?" Yumi asked. "It seems to me that they really do love you, despite what happened when you were a kid."

"You don't understand." Sakura said, shaking her head. "When I was a kid my parents discovered some... *ehem* gifts that I had. My father kept it secret and beat me to make sure I kept it secret as well. What I'm afraid of is that my grandfather found out about them and now he wants me back so that he can use my gifts against people. In other words, he wants to use them for purposes that I do not believe are right."

"What kind of purposes?" Yumi asked, curious as to what could be so horrible as to make Sakura not want to go back to her family.

"I don't know." Sakura said, shrugging. "Demo, I do know this: my grandfather will do everything and anything to deal with his competition. Even if it means doing things that are a little less than moral, like using my gifts to kill someone for instance."

"That's horrible." Yumi said, cringing at the thought of Sakura killing someone.

"Now you see why I wanted to remove myself from this world." Sakura said, leaning back and looking at the ceiling. "Remove the temptation and you remove the intent to use it. I am the temptation of my grandfather. Although it's more like my gifts are the temptation, but only I can use them."

"Soka." Yumi said, finally understanding what made her friend go crazy and attempt suicide. "So what are these 'gifts' of yours? Can you tell me?"

"Better yet," Sakura said, looking back at her friend and smiling. "I can show you, once I'm out of here of course."

"Hontou?" Yumi asked excitedly. "Promise?"

"Promise." Sakura said, nodding her head.

*End Yumi's Flashback*

"Yumi!"

"Hai?!" Yumi jolted back to the present in time to see Sachiko shoot her a disapproving look for spacing out again.

"I asked, what you thought of the petite soeurs taking part in the Newspaper Club's Valentine's game that they want us to work on for next month." Youko said, repeating the question for the fourth time in a row.

"Oh, umm," Yumi said trying to remember what the game idea was. "I don't see the harm in it." She concluded. "It would make it more fun for everybody." Youko nodded approvingly and the meeting continued. Yumi breathed a sigh of relief and looked back out the window, waiting for the meeting to end.

After The Meeting...

Yumi and Yoshino had just finished doing the dishes and were about to walk out the door when Sachiko, who had stayed after the meeting to read over some paperwork, called Yumi back. Thinking that this was about her spacing out, Yumi was a tad nervous, made all the more so by the fact that she was going to be late for her meeting with Sakura who would show her the 'gifts' her grandfather wanted to use against his competition. The two of them were left alone in the room and Sachiko was looking out the window, her back to Yumi.

"Ano, onee-sama..." Yumi began.

"Yumi-chan?" Sachiko asked, cutting Yumi off.

"Hai?" Yumi asked, it wasn't like Sachiko to cut anybody off and her tone of voice sounded strange too.

"When you visited her, did Sakura say whether she had accepted father's proposal to come back into the family or not?"

"Eh?" The question caught Yumi off guard. First Sakura saying that she misses her family, but not knowing whether they miss her or not and now Sachiko, Yumi's grande soeur and Sakura's biological onee-sama, was asking her if Sakura wanted to come back.

"I'm just wondering," Sachiko said, dragging Yumi out of her thoughts. "If she misses me as much as I miss her. Ever since I first saw her at school, the day I met you, my heart has yearned to be with her, to be there for her when she needs me, to hug her when she needs a hug. Demo, I'm scared." That surprised Yumi even more than Sachiko's asking about Sakura. The fact that her onee-sama was admitting that she was scared was not something one normally saw or heard. "I'm scared to tell her how I feel because I'm scared that she doesn't feel the same way. I just," Sachiko's voice cracked a little and Yumi could see tears trickling down her face. "I just want to be with her again, and to apologize to her."

Now Sachiko's tears really started to fall and Yumi went up to her and hugged her with Sachiko burying her face into Yumi's shoulder, her tears leaving wet stains on Yumi's shirt, but Yumi didn't mind. She was finally able to help and be there for her onee-sama when Sachiko needed her.

"It's okay." Yumi said, patting Sachiko's back in an attempt to calm the hysterical second-year. "Listen," She said, once Sachiko's sobs quieted a little bit. "Sakura-chan feels the same way you do."

"Eh?" Sachiko looked up with red eyes and a tear-stained face.

"Hai," Yumi continued. "She misses you so much, although she would never admit it to your face, but she's terrified that you never missed her at all after she was disowned."

"How can that be?" Sachiko asked, straightening up but not letting go of Yumi.

"Ever since she saw you that day, you have never locked eyes with her, nor have you spoken to her directly and, even though she didn't say it; I think that she was hurt when you asked me to be your petite soeur. Sakura told me she didn't expect it to happen after what happened all those years ago and that she was happy for me, demo, I still think she was hurt and is probably a little jealous of me, getting to spend so much time with you and all when she hasn't even seen you until that day." Yumi shrugged. "Either way, you both miss each other so why don't you just make up with each other and forget about the past and, instead, focus on the present, no matter how many pains come along with it."

"Arigatou, Yumi-chan." Sachiko said as she let go of Yumi and wiped her eyes, recomposing herself.

"It's okay." Yumi said, already missing the warmth that Sachiko's body brought when she was clinging to her before. "You needed me and I was there. That's all I could ever ask for." At that moment Yumi just happened to glance at the clock. "AHHH! I'M LATE!" She shrieked, realizing that she was supposed to meet Sakura at the park half an hour ago.

"Late?" Sachiko asked as she watched Yumi running around the room, cleaning and gathering her stuff at top speed. "For what?"

"I was supposed to meet Sakura-chan at the park thirty minutes ago." Yumi explained as she ran around like a chicken with its head cut off. "She got out of the hospital today and she promised that as soon as she did we would meet up with each other and she would show my her 'gifts' that she thinks her grandfather wants to use for less than moral purposes if she comes back to the family."

Sachiko paled then started helping Yumi clean up.

"Onee-sama?" Yumi asked, pausing in her work for a split second before resuming.

"I'm coming with you." Sachiko stated, gathering her papers and stuffing them unceremoniously into her bag. "Someone has to make sure she doesn't do anything stupid and that no one else is there to see her do it."

Before Yumi could ask Sachiko what she meant by 'do something stupid', Sachiko grabbed Yumi's bag, handed it to her, grabbed her own bag and quickly walked out of the Rose Mansion with Yumi jogging to keep up with her.

*This day keeps getting stranger and stranger.* Yumi thought as they made their way to the park and to Sakura's demonstration of her 'gifts'.


	7. An Interesting Secret

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: See Chapter One

Sakura looked at her watch, the sixth time in five minutes, Yumi was late, an hour late to be exact.

*Where could she be?* Sakura asked to herself then sighed. *I bet she got lost or something silly like that.* She thought answering her own question. She was about to give up and go home for the first time since she sat on the floor of her shower and attempted to remove temptation from her grandfather's path when she heard someone, faintly, yell her name.

"Sakura!" The yell was louder this time and Sakura turned around to see Yumi running up to her.

"You're late," Sakura said once Yumi had caught up to her, bent over and breathing like she had just run all the way from Lillian to the park. (She actually had, trying to keep up with Sachiko was harder than she expected.) "Did you get lost or something?" Sakura asked as Yumi continued to try to catch her breath.

"No," Yumi panted, straitening up, chest heaving. "The meeting went longer than expected then I had to do the dishes and then onee-sama had something of a melt-down."

Behind a Tree...

Sachiko put her hand to her head. She had ducked into the trees while telling Yumi she would watch from there. She was close enough to hear the conversation between her two sisters, her school soeur and her biological imouto. Upon hearing Yumi mention her earlier melt-down she sweat-dropped, embarrassed by her soeur's outburst. *Yumi-chan,* she thought. *You didn't have to tell her that.* Sachiko couldn't help but feel embarrassed and annoyed that Yumi had shared that bit of information with Sakura. Sachiko liked to think that her little sister had always thought her to be strong, invincible. Obviously she still did because the next thing Sachiko heard was Sakura questioning Yumi, disbelieving.

In the Clearing...

"Onee-sama? You mean Sachiko-sama?" Sakura asked, thinking it very strange for Sachiko to break down the way Yumi described.

"Oh, stop it will you?" Yumi said, annoyed that her friend still refused to call Sachiko 'onee-sama' even though she was still her sister.

"Stop what?" Sakura asked, surprised to hear Yumi sound so annoyed.

"Stop calling her 'Sachiko-sama'." Yumi stated, crossing her arms over her chest in defiance of any protestation Sakura may come up with. "Call her 'onee-sama' for once in your life. She's still your sister, no matter what happened between you two when you were disowned. Stop reminiscing about the past and focus on the present. Onee-sama misses you, she always has, and even though you won't admit it, I know you miss her too."

Sakura was too stunned to speak, was she really that transparent? *No,* she decided. *Yumi just knows me better than even I do.*

Behind the Tree...

Sachiko was just as stunned as Sakura was. *So Yumi-chan was right,* she thought. *Sakura-chan does miss me, she just had the same fears as I did and refused to admit it* Sachiko was ripped out of her thoughts when she heard Yumi start talking again and strained her ears to listen.

In the Clearing...

"Listen," Yumi was saying; Sakura had not spoken for a whole two minutes so Yumi took that as her cue to continue. "You're still sisters and you both miss each other. So just go talk to each other and make up already! Your silence towards each other is killing me."

"Demo..." Sakura began, but Yumi cut her off.

"No, buts." She said, holding up a finger to silence any more protests. "You and Sachiko are going to make up with each other. Now!"

"Demo she's not here!" Sakura said, quickly before Yumi could silence her.

"Yes she is." Yumi said then, at Sakura's questioning expression, looked over her shoulder to the tree where Sachiko was hiding behind. "Onee-sama!" She called. "Come out. Now!"

Behind the Tree...

Sachiko was surprised. She had never heard Yumi use such a patronizing tone to anybody ever. She was also surprised at the fact that Yumi kept insisting that she and Sakura make up with each other, not that she didn?t want to, she was just surprised.

"Onee-sama!"She heard Yumi yell at her. "Come out. Now!"

Sachiko sighed and, reluctantly, gave up her hiding place as she began to step into the clearing.

In the Clearing...

Sakura was sincerely doubting, and not hoping, that Sachiko would appear. She did not wish to see her onee-sama at this point, especially since she was going to do exactly what she had sworn not to do.

"Yumi-chan," Sakura said, resigned to deal with the consequences later. "I don't want to see Sachiko-sama, at least not now."

Behind the Tree...

Sachiko froze. Did she hear correctly? Did Sakura just say that she didn't want to see her right now? Sachiko was stunned. *I thought Yumi-chan said Sakura-chan missed me* Sachiko thought, retreating back to her hiding place, determined to find out Sakura's reasons for not wanting to see her.

In the Clearing...

"What?" Yumi asked, totally and completely stunned by Sakura's monotone voice and what it had just said. "Why ever not?" She asked, gaining hold of her wits.

"Because, I would rather not have her see what I'm about to show you. She may know about my gifts, but she has never seen them before, and even if she had they would have grown since the last time she saw them, and they have grown, exponentially I might add. I just don,t want her to get scared off just from seeing me in my other form."

"I understand," Yumi said. "Demo,"

"No buts," Sakura said, holding up a finger just as Yumi had done with her. "This is my call Yumi-chan, I think I would know that my older sister would get scared off because even I got scared of myself the last time, Mizuki onee-san was the only one who was never scared and taught me how to control myself so that I wouldn't get scared. Now," she said. "Would you like to see what on earth I am talking about?"

"Mmm." Yumi nodded her head.

"Fine, just stand an arm's length away for now, I don't want to burn you." As Yumi stepped back, Sakura reached her arms out and concentrated really hard on the space between her palms where an orange light began to form and take shape. Once Sakura could smell smoke she stopped and showed Yumi the flame that hovered in her cupped hands.

"Whoa!" Yumi said, coming a little closer. "You can create fire?"

"And manipulate it to do what I want." Sakura said, moving her hands around and changing the shape of the flame to resemble birds and other animals as she talked. "I can do the same thing with earth, air and water. Basically I can control these four elements to do with as I wish."

"That's cool!" Yumi said, "But why would onee-sama be scared off by this?"

"This is just one of my gifts; the other two are not as, shall we say, easy to control. The first I cannot show you because I cannot call upon it any time I wish, it just happens.?"

"Is that your uncanny ability to use tarot cards and Ouija boards?"Yumi asked, remembering her eighth grade sleep-over party where Sakura had done tarot readings for everyone that were scarily accurate and where Sakura used a Ouija board to answer a friend's question about what lies in wait in the spirit world.

"Yes, that's exactly it." Sakura said, happy that she at least didn't have to explain that one. "Of course that ability, like my elemental control, has grown over time and I now see visions of the future and past."

"Okay," Yumi said. "I can see how that would be a little scary, but what about this third gift of yours? Is it really so crazy that you think that Sachiko would be scared off?"

"Yes it is." Sakura said sighing, knowing that she would regret what she was about to do at some point in her life. "Do you want to see it?" She asked, knowing the answer.

"Onegai." Yumi said.

"Stand way back then." Sakura advised, backing away from Yumi as she said so. "Here goes." Sakura said, taking a deep breath to steady her quickening pulse. She closed her eyes and concentrated as a white light started to envelope her. She felt the unexplainable stretch out from her back as her clothes changed to a flowing, armoured gown. Her hair grew longer and went to its natural colour of black. Her eyes changed from their natural blue to a silver-gray and she could feel the spark that came when her powers grew. When it was all over, Sakura opened her eyes, only to see Yumi staring up, yes up, at her with wide eyes, filled with wonder, fear and awe.

Behind the Tree...

Sachiko couldn't believe her eyes. There was Sakura, her little sister, hovering above Yumi, a shimmering mass of midnight-black hair and flowing fabric. Her eyes had gone from ocean-blue to silver-grey and her plain Lillian uniform had been transformed into a beautiful sky-blue gown with glittering silver chest and shoulder armour inlaid with sapphires in a swirling pattern that had no beginning and no end. On the top of her head, amidst a mass of wavy, flowing black hair, sat a small and simple tiara. More stunning than her new physical appearance, or even the shimmering rainbow aura around her, were the pure snow-white angel wings that stretched from her back and reached out in a span of six feet, three feet per wing!

In the Clearing...

Sakura drifted down to land softly on her feet a few feet away from Yumi, who was still staring at her. Sakura didn't blame her; she knew what happened when she changed form and how she must look to other people. She waited patiently while Yumi cautiously approached her.

"Wow." Yumi said, circling around Sakura while inspecting the gown, the hair, the eyes and the wings. "I can see why you would think that onee-sama would be scared of you. How did you get like this anyway?" She asked, lightly tugging on the wings to ensure that they were real.

"Basically?" Sakura asked, surprised the Yumi wasn't as scared as Sakura thought she would be. "Genetic engineering."

"Genetic engineering?" Yumi asked, getting a feeling of dread from those two simple words.

"When I was a child, maybe two or three, I was a secret subject for my uncle's genetics lab. Basically, what they did, secretly of course, was fiddle around with my genes to see if they could change my physical appearance by changing my genetic make-up. If it worked the way they wanted it to, they would do tests on pregnant women to see if their children would be born the way I was changed. If that worked, they would create an army of these people to do with as they pleased." Sakura explained, inwardly flinching at the memory of those days where she would be hooked up to machines and her uncle's employees would take numerous blood samples.

"That's horrible!" Yumi exclaimed, not believing that more horrible things could have happened to Sakura before she was disowned.

"It is," Sakura agreed. "But, thankfully, it didn't happen."

"Why not?" Yumi asked, relieved and confused at the same time.

"Two reasons." Sakura answered. "One: they decided that me and the other test subject, a boy about my age, were failures because they didn't get immediate results. Two: Tou-san found out what was going on and shut down the lab."

"Well that's good," Yumi said. "At least it proves that your father cares about you."

"Not really," Sakura said, folding her wings in to avoid hitting Yumi with them or getting them caught on something. "He just didn't want my uncle to have an army of super humans at his disposal."

"Oh." Yumi said. "So are you stuck like that now?" she asked, pointing at Sakura's wings.

"Nope." With that the blinding white light enveloped Sakura again as she shifted back to her human form, blonde hair, uniform and all.

"Cool!" Yumi said. "So you can change back and forth whenever you want?"

"Most of the time yes, but because of what I am..."

"What exactly are you anyway?" Yumi asked, cutting Sakura off as she just realized that she had no idea what Sakura was, besides a genetic engineering test gone perfectly, despite what the engineers thought.

"Well, the name that was given to us, if we became a race that is, was called Draconian after the legendary people of Atlantis, my uncle always liked Greek Mythology."

"Soka." Yumi said, not really understanding but pretending to anyway. "Anyway, you were saying about shifting back?"

"Oh, right." Sakura said, having forgotten the fact that Yumi had interrupted her before she could answer the first question. "Because of what I am, what I am being a draconian, I can't always shift back and forth. There are two days every month when I can't. Those are the times when a day has a night with a full moon or a night with a new moon. During a full moon I unwillingly change into a draconian and cannot change back till the morning. During a new moon, however, is exactly the opposite. I unwillingly become a human again and cannot change into a draconian until the next day."

"I see, so that's how it works. No wonder you always disappeared one day every month."

Sakura and Yumi both jumped at the sound of another person's voice and Sakura spun around and crouched in a fighting stance on instinct before she realized it was only Sachiko who, despite Sakura's silent order for Sachiko, if she was around, to leave. At the sight of her biological sister, Sakura stood up from her crouch, but didn't relax.

"You saw then?" Sakura asked, cutting to the chase immediately and making a mental note to throttle Yumi for bringing Sachiko at the first chance she got.

"I did." Sachiko said simply. "And despite what you may think...I'm not afraid of you."

At that Sakura actually looked Sachiko in the eyes, surprised by her quiet, and somewhat hurt, tone of voice. She locked eyes with her sister and saw that she was crying.

"Sachiko-sama I-" Sakura stopped mid-sentence from a stomp on her foot by Yumi. After glaring at her friend, Sakura continued. "I'm sorry...onee-sama." With that, Sakura turned around, and walked out of the clearing, not happy and not looking back.


	8. Complications

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: See Chapter One

Yumi sighed and looked at the empty seat beside her. It had been a week since Sakura had told, and shown, Yumi her three secrets and she had not been to school since. Every time Yumi went over to her house, Mizuki said that Sakura was indisposed and couldn't have visitors. Not only did Sakura's continued absence worry Yumi, it had an even greater toll on Sachiko as well. Yumi knew that her onee-sama would never admit it, but she was really worried. Yumi could tell that she stayed up late worrying from the dark circles under Sachiko's eyes and that she worried every other minute of the day from her conversation tone, her sudden desire not to eat at lunch and many other things that weren't as noticeable by the other members of the Yamayurikai. Yumi sighed again and wondered when Sakura would come back and what would happen if she did.

Later that day...

Yumi walked into the room the Yamayurikai used in the Rose Mansion and froze; there was a problem with the room. She was early and had wanted to do some cleaning before the Yamayurikai meeting, but the problem was, it was already done. The floor was swept, the counters cleaned, the shelves organized and there was a fresh vase of flowers in the middle of the table with a clean, white tablecloth and teacups already placed at the places where each member sat. The window was open; letting a fresh breeze drift in and gently blow the white curtains about and a fresh pot of hot water for the tea was slowly boiling. As Yumi walked around, trying to discern the source of such cleanliness, she noticed a note taped to the cupboard above the stove. It read:

"Yumi,

I know you'll be the one to find this because I know that you always come early to clean up before the meeting. I know you probably think that I don't want to be around you and Sachiko-sama due to my continued absence from school and Mizuki onee-sama turning you away every time you come to visit. I came during class time to clean up and leave this note for you to show you that I am not, in fact, hiding from the two of you. Also, I wish to tell you that I really am indisposed, and will be for the next few weeks, maybe months. This is due to...complications. You probably wouldn't recognize me if you saw me the way I am now and I would prefer it if you didn't. Tell Sachiko-sama not to worry, I know she is and if she reads this she better know that I know. Stay late after the meeting and I'll talk to you, because I kind of need to. Anyway, just know that I am not hiding, I really am indisposed due to complications, and tell everyone that I'll show up at school again sooner or later...preferably sooner rather than later.

See you soon, hopefully,

Sakura"

As soon as Yumi finished reading, the other members of the Yamayurikai, except for Sachiko, entered the room and took their seats. Yumi, too stunned by the note Sakura had left, didn't notice them until Sei walked up behind her and grabbed her around the waist at which point Yumi, more surprised to find that she was no longer alone in the room than anything else let out a little scream.

"Mou, Rosa Gigantea." Yumi complained, wriggling out of Sei's grip. "Don't scare me like that!"

"What? I scared you?" Sei asked, acting surprised "You were the one who scared me."

Before Yumi could ask what she meant, Shimako came up and looked at Yumi. "Yumi," She asked. "Are you all right? You look really pale."

"Now that you mention it," Yoshino said, coming up to stand beside Shimako and looking at Yumi. "Both Yumi-chan and Sachiko-san look really pale today."

"You two worry too much." Sei said, draping her arm around Yumi. "It's just because Yumi worked so hard earlier on cleaning up today." As she said this, she brought her arm around in a sweeping motion to indicate the entire room that was so clean, neat and tidy.

"Actually that wasn't me." Yumi said, ducking out from under Sei's arm. "It was Sakura." At that moment, Sachiko entered the room.

"What about Sakura?" She asked, hope and worry clearly evident in her voice.

"Nandemo." Yumi said quickly while throwing Sei a look that said 'Don't you dare say a thing,' "Just noting that she was absent again today."

"Soka... She's not here again." Sachiko said, taking her seat, Yumi sitting down beside her, as the meeting began.

After the meeting...

"Onee-sama," Yumi said as Sachiko and the other Yamayurikai members were getting ready to leave. "Would you mind waiting behind for me?" She asked. "I need to talk to you, don't worry about cleaning up." She said as Yoshino was about to do just that. "I'll handle it."

Yoshino nodded and headed out the door with Rei, Eriko, Sei and Shimako. After a moment of a concerned look over her shoulder at her petite soeurs, Youko followed them.

"What did you need to talk to me about?" Sachiko asked, sounding tired, as Yumi washed the teacups.

"Sakura." Yumi said. "I finally heard from her, or rather, read from her." As she said this, Yumi pulled out the note that Sakura had left and handed it to Sachiko who immediately grabbed it. "It sounds like something happened after she showed me her...you know." Yumi said as Sachiko read the note silently.

"So she's coming here?" Sachiko asked.

"Looks like it." Yumi said.

"No I'm not!" Sakura's voice echoed through the room, making Yumi and Sachiko jump.

"Sakura-chan?" Yumi asked, trying to discern the source of her friend's voice.

"Yes stone ears!" Sakura's disembodied voice said, sounding annoyed. "Do you have any idea how long I have been standing here trying to get you to hear me?"

"Ummm..." Yumi said.

"Never mind." Sakura said. "I'll just cut right to the chase, I can't hold this spell for very long so I'll be brief."

"Wait! Spell?" Yumi asked, never had Sakura mentioned an ability to cast spells.

"I'll explain later." Sakura said. "I am fine...tired and weak maybe, but fine nonetheless. I haven't been to school due to some complications because of an...unexpected arrival."

"Unexpected arrival?" Yumi asked, looking at the ceiling.

"I'll explain later." Sakura said, her voice growing fainter. "I should be around tomorrow so you can see me face-to-face...I have to go now." As she said this, her voice grew fainter and disappeared altogether.

"That was weird." Yumi said.

"You're telling me." Yumi and Sachiko spun around to come face-to-face with Youko who had slipped back in without their noticing.

"Onee-sama!" Sachiko exclaimed, fury rising within her. "How long have you been there?"

"Long enough." Youko said, moving away from the closed door she had been leaning against since she entered the room. "And now I would like a moment to speak with Sachiko if you don't mind Yumi."

"Hai," Yumi said, realizing that the two Rosas had some issues to work out, she could feel the anger emanating off of Sachiko as she stood there. "Mata ashita, onee-sama." Yumi said as she walked out the door, hoping that Sachiko would be all right and that Youko hadn't figured out Sakura's secret.

"Sachiko," Youko said as soon as Yumi had left.

"Hai, onee-sama," Sachiko answered coolly. She was still quite perturbed that Youko had eavesdropped on her and Yumi's conversation. "Nani?"

"What does Sakura-san mean to you?"

The question took Sachiko aback. She had thought that Youko wanted to ask about Sakura's disembodied voice appearing, and then disappearing, out of nowhere. Sachiko wasn't sure how to answer as Youko, and the rest of the Yamayurikai members except for Yumi, didn't know that Sakura was her biological imouto. So she opted for answering the question with a question.

"Why would you want to know?"

"Because you seem to be thinking about her a lot and get just as worried as Yumi whenever she doesn't show up for school more than one or two days in a row. Yumi I can understand as Sakura-san is her best friend, but you, with you there is really no reason to be so worried." She looked at Sachiko for a moment. "I am curious to know if you made the right decision in making Yumi your soeur rather than Sakura herself."

Sachiko almost laughed but managed to restrain herself. Make Sakura her soeur? Yea right! Sachiko didn't even know her biological sister had been at her school until the day she met Yumi, and even then she didn't recognize her right away, blonde hair and violet eyes and all.

"Of course I made the right decision." Sachiko said, still trying not to laugh at her onee-sama's ridiculous statement. "I'm not sure if you noticed onee-sama, but me and Sakura-chan do not get on well at all. Besides," She said, holding up a finger before Youko could make any more arguments. "I'm not even technically worried about her I'm worried about Yumi who's worried about her, and I am perfectly entitled to worry about my petite soeur am I not?"

Youko looked at her petite soeur for a moment, debating whether or not to press the matter. Eventually she chose the latter. "Fine, whatever you say, but I still think you're hiding something from me, both you and Yumi-chan and believe me, no matter what it takes, I will find out what it is." Youko nodded to her petite soeur and headed out the door.

"I don't doubt it." Sachiko said to herself after Youko had left, deciding to resolve things with her imouto ASAP so that she could tell Youko that Sakura was her biological sister. Otherwise Youko may just find out Sachiko's BIG secret, the one that Sakura herself had kept from Sachiko for almost fifteen years.

Sakura sighed, she was so tired, but so worried about Lance that she didn't sleep, at all. She was sitting on a chair beside her bed where Lance lay, unconscious, bandaged and still bleeding. It had been little over a week since Sakura came home after revealing her secret to Yumi and Sachiko to find Lance collapsed on the small balcony that extended out of Sakura's bedroom. Sakura rubbed her eyes, leaned back and remembered that fateful day.

*Flashback*

Sakura was tired. She had just transformed to and fro between human and Draconian in less than half an hour as well as showed off her gifts to Yumi. The new moon had only just passed the night before and Sakura was not back up to her full strength as she would have been if she had shown Yumi a couple of days later, not to mention that she had only just gotten out of the hospital that same day and still felt queasy from her blood loss and concussion which hadn't completely gone away yet.

She got to the door of the apartment she shared with Mizuki and, taking notice of the note Mizuki left saying that she would be staying late at the office again that night, opened the door and walked into her room where she immediately froze. There, on the small balcony that extended out from her bedroom wall opposite her door lay Lance. Sakura knew it was him, even though she hadn't seen him since the two of them had run away from being test subjects in her uncle's genetics lab, because he was in his Draconian form except his once snow white angel wings were now stained with red, as was his silver plate armour that matched the one on Sakura's own gown in her Draconian form.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts she rushed to the door, opened it and dragged Lance inside. She laid him on the floor and ran to the bathroom cupboard where she got gauze bandages, medical tape and a wet cloth. She then returned to Lance and started to bandage his numerous wounds, on his arms, legs, face and wings. She cursed the new moon that had still left her virtually powerless as her healing abilities would not return until a couple of days later. After staunching his bleeding and tying off the last bandage, Sakura lifted him up and placed him on her bed. She called Mizuki, told her what happened, sat down beside Lance and waited.

*End Flashback*

Sakura looked out the window, it had been a week since then and although some of his wounds had closed and stopped bleeding, with a little Draconian healing magic from Sakura, Lance still had not woken up. Sakura had stayed by his bedside as often as she could, eating very little, sleeping very little and opting not to go back to school until he woke up. Even Mizuki stayed up some nights with her and her ever-constant vigil. Just then a flicker of movement in her peripheral vision caught her eye and she heard a groan. Sakura snapped her head around to see Lance sitting up, a bandaged hand to his bandaged head.

"Lance!" Sakura yelled, resisting the urge to leap from her chair and hug him.

"Sakura?!" Lance exclaimed, looking up to see Sakura's relieved face smiling at him. "What are you doing here?" He asked.

"That's my line." Sakura retorted. "One minute I'm having a rather awkward moment with Sachiko-sama and the next I come home and you're dying on my doorstep. What happened?"

"You're asking me?" Lance said, taking off his bandages as he had healed himself as he talked, Sakura only noticed this fact due to the shimmering white aura that had begun to surround Lance a moment ago.

"Why not?" Sakura challenged. "You're the one who collapsed, bleeding, on my balcony. Do you know how long it took to clean up all the blood?"

Lance laughed. "Same old Sakura, I figured if I crash-landed somewhere you would be the first to find me. I just didn't expect me to be the one to find you first. As to what happened...even I don't know the answer to that. I was attacked, how or why I don't know or remember. All I know is that it was no ordinary attack. They knew I was a Draconian so it had to have been planned by..."

"Oh, God..." Sakura said, fearing the worst.

"Them." Lance finished, shaking his head. "I'm sorry Sakura, it seems your grandfather found out about us sooner than either of us anticipated."

"No wonder they wanted me back in the family!" Sakura fumed. "They were trying to get to you the entire time, after all you are the one who's more powerful out of the two of us."

"Or it could have been vice-versa." Lance pointed out, reverting back to human form as he talked, his wings disappearing and his black hair going back to its dyed blonde, his silver-grey eyes turning light blue and his armoured tunic and trousers reverting to a Hanadera boy's uniform. "They could have attacked me in hopes of taking me hostage to get you to come back to the family. Then they would have used you to get me to do what they want and vice-versa."

"Ow, all this thinking and guesstimating hurts my head." Sakura said mockingly. "So on a more personal note, while the other half of my brain tries to sort out this mess, why are you in a Hanadera uniform?"

"Because I go there," Lance said simply. "You don't, or didn't know it but since we parted when we were kids, I've been following you..."

"Always there, but never close enough to see." Sakura said, finishing his sentence for him. "Mou, you haven't changed either then. So, back to the problem at hand, what are we going to do?" she asked, looking back out the window. "I mean, it's obvious that, no matter how much I want to make-up with Sachiko-sama, I can't go back to the family! ARRGG! It was so much easier when I hated her and believed that she hated me! I never had to deal with these complications before, and I didn't think I would ever have to deal with them if something like this happened..."

"As we both knew it would." Lance said, finishing her sentence for her.

"Exactly!" Sakura said. "ARRGG! If only uncle's testing and experimenting with us had not worked. Then maybe I would still be Sachiko-sama's little sister and not tangled up in this mess, the one you helped me get into."

"Sakura," Lance said, locking his light blue eyes with her violet ones. "I truly am sorry, because of me you lost your family, your freedom and now you may even lose your life, but you must realize that life is never easy."

"I know." Sakura said sighing. "I just wish it were easier, like it was before. This attack on you, and the knowledge that my sister does care about me, has just added like a billion other complications."

"I know," Lance said. "But now that you know that I am here and that, no matter what, you will not be left alone, we can face, and deal with, these complications together. Like I've said before..."

"United we stand, divided we fall, now and forevermore." Sakura finished for him, smiling a little at his favourite saying. *Too bad Lance doesn't know to what extent these complications will affect us, and those we love.* She thought. *Then again, I didn't add Yumi to that. Damn, yet another complicated complication.*


	9. The Truth Comes Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: See Chapter One

"Where are you going?" Lance asked as Sakura came back into the room to get her school bag. It was mid-afternoon and Sakura

"School, where else?" Sakura answered, shoving her feet into her shoes and heading for the door.

"You can't go!" Lance said, attempting to block Sakura's way to the door.

"Yes I can!" Sakura stated, shoving Lance out of the way. "I have to, otherwise everyone'll come here, which is the last thing we want."

"I still don't like it," Lance stated, letting Sakura go out the door and following her. "They'll be watching you to discern who is close to you so that they can use them against you. It's like you're a walking disaster waiting to kill your friends."

"Thanks," Sakura said, rolling her eyes sarcastically. "That makes me feel so much better. What I'm more worried about is what they're going to say when they see me like this" She said, indicating her altered appearance thanks to her healing Lance.

"What are you going to do?" Lance asked as they walked down the street towards Lillian.

"Something I hope I won't regret." Sakura said as they stopped in front of the gates to the school. *Here goes nothing.* She thought as she left Lance and headed straight for the Rose Mansion.

At The Rose Mansion…

Yumi sighed; she was staring into space, again, thinking about Sakura, again. Sakura had told Yumi and Sachiko that she would see them tomorrow, but tomorrow had come and gone three times already and Sakura still had not shown up like she promised. Yumi wondered if Sakura really was indisposed and not just hiding like she claimed she was not. The promise Sakura had made to meet with Sachiko and Yumi face-to-face had brought her onee-sama out of the pit of worry and depression so that it was not as noticeable, but Sachiko had begun to become weary once again and Yumi couldn't help but blame Sakura for the condition in which she would find Sachiko every morning for the past four days.

"Yumi?"

Yumi tore her eyes out the window and looked around the room. Everyone was seated around the table and chatting amongst themselves, none of them could have called her.

"Yumi?"

The voice was more persistent and Yumi recognized it immediately as soon as she concentrated on finding out where the voice came from.

"Yumi, I'm outside the door. I'm back. I'm going to knock and enter. Please, don't scream."

Yumi looked around the room again, but no sooner had she locked eyes with a confused Sachiko, there was a knock and the door creaked open as all eyes turned towards the sound.

Beforehand, in the Hallway…

Sakura had just finished sending her telepathic commands to Yumi and had her hand on the doorknob, still caught in the cross-fires of the debate raging within her head. *Just do it,* She ordered herself. *You have to do it soon anyway, so just get it over and done with.* With her courage and resolve firmly intact, she knocked briskly on the door and opened it, steeling herself for the reactions she was sure to get.

Present…

As the door creaked open to reveal the person standing behind it, there was an audible gasp from the majority of the Yamayurikai and a small shriek from Yoshino and Shimako. Sakura was standing in the door; at least it appeared to be Sakura. Her bangs covered her eyes, but her hair was not blonde, nor was it its natural colour of black. Instead, it was so light, it was almost white. Her skin was also a shade paler and her arms and shoulders, since they could see them due to the fact that Sakura wasn't wearing her uniform, were covered in swirling tattoos of black and dark blue.

"I'm back." Sakura said, lifting up her head and smiling forcefully while she ignored the gasps that her once violet eyes, now a silver-gray, gained her. "Miss me?" The whole of the Yamayurikai just stared at her in shock, mouths agape, even Sei had been stunned into speechlessness.

"Sakura-chan? Is that really you?" Shimako was the first to speak.

"Unfortunately yes," Sakura said as she entered the room, closing the door behind her. "Don't worry though, it's not permanent, only temporary."

"How temporary?" Yumi asked, getting over her shock.

"It'll be permanent until the new moon, when I become human again." Sakura answered.

"And what about the Draconian you?" Sachiko asked.

"The next time I transform, I'll be the same as the day I explained everything to Yumi….when you were eavesdropping on us." Sakura said, taking a seat Yumi had offered her.

"Hold up!" Rei said, throwing her hands into the air. "Sakura has been absent for more than two weeks, she shows up today with white hair, black tattoos, silver eyes and now is talking with Yumi-chan and Sachiko-san about not being human. Did I miss something?"

"No," Sakura said, piercing Rei with her silver gaze, something that made Rei uneasy for some reason. "Yumi-chan and Sachiko-sama just happen to know what my past holds in terms of secrets and pain."

"Well, I think it's time you shared some of that with those of us who did not grow up with you." Youko said, making a very good point.

"But Sachiko-san did not grow up with Sakura-chan," Eriko pointed out. "Did she?"

"Not for the past eleven years." Sakura stated simply, looking directly at Eriko. "I won't say much about it because it is rather unpleasant for those of us involved to even think about it, but I will say this, I am not the biological sister of Mizuki onee-sama."

"Not the biological sister?" Yoshino asked, confused. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that she was adopted by Mizuki Kusumoto," Youko explained, locking eyes with Sakura, neither of them breaking the gaze as Youko talked. "She was orphaned, or should I say, disowned, by her biological family before Kusumoto-san adopted her and became her guardian."

"What?" Sei asked, looking from Sakura to Youko and back again. "Then who's her real sister?"

When Youko didn't answer, Sakura sighed and stood up. "You ask me who my real sister is, assuming that I do know who she is."

"Don't you?" Shimako asked.

"I do." Sakura said. "In fact, she is in this room right now." When everyone began to look around Sakura sighed again. "Would my real onee-sama please stand up?" When Sachiko reluctantly, but confidently stood up, the entire room froze and went quiet. "Mina-san, I would like to formally introduce to you my biological sister, Ogasawara Sachiko-san." The room remained quiet as both Sakura and Sachiko sat back down simultaneously

"Sakura-chan?" Yoshino asked, looking from Sakura to Sachiko and back again. "Are you trying to say that you're really…?"

"Ogasawara Sakura."


	10. Distancing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: See Chapter One

Sakura let her last two words sink into the minds of her friends as five of them stared at her in shock, one smirked liked there was no tomorrow and two held mixed expressions of shock, terror and sympathy.

"That's not possible…" Yoshino began to say, but was silenced by an elbow from Rei.

"Actually it is quite possible." Sakura stated. "You think it is not because Sachiko and I look nothing alike, even more so now, but I'll get to that later. I look nothing like her because I dyed my hair from black like Sachiko's to the blonde you've been seeing. I also got violet coloured contacts to make myself look more like Mizuki's sister rather than Sachiko's as my natural eye colour is the same as hers."

"Why did you not tell us then?" Shimako asked, perplexed.

"Because you didn't need to know." Sakura explained, "I had cut all ties with my biological family after I was disowned when I was six. I will not go into details because the less you know the better."

"What do you mean by that?" Eriko asked.

"Well, when I was a child, a friend of mine and myself were test subjects for my uncle's genetics engineering lab. They wanted to create a race of super-humans and, well, they thought the tests failed, but they really succeeded. All of this was kept secret from my grandfather by my father so nobody except me, Lance who was my friend, my uncle and my father knew. I was disowned soon after that and I thought life would be okay, but then, somehow, my grandfather found out about me and Lance. He had Lance attacked and Lance was badly hurt. That's why I haven't been at school for a while, because I was taking care of Lance. That's also why I look like this, I don't know much about it; just that it happens when we expend a great amount of energy into healing one of our own. It supposedly makes us more powerful."

"What does that have to do with us not needing to know anything about you?" Sei asked.

"It has everything to do with it!" Sakura exclaimed. "Don't you see? If Lance was attacked then my grandfather is obviously going to try to attack me next! I can't let him know that I have friends and people that I care about so that he can use them against me to make me do what he wants!"

"So he has begun to move then?" Sachiko asked.

"Yes," Sakura answered turning to her sister. "And it also means that you can no longer be around me. It means that I have to distance myself as far as possible from all of you; to keep you safe and to keep anything from happening to any of you!"

"So does this mean that you won't be at school anymore?" Yumi asked.

"Yes, in fact, Lance and I are going to move, I won't tell you where because, again, the less you guys know the better. Lance and I will lie low for a while until my grandfather gives up his search for us, then maybe I can come back." With that, Sakura turned on her heel and headed towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Yoshino asked, just as Sakura opened the door.

"I told you, I'm leaving with Lance to keep you guys out of the mess that is my life. I'll see you around…hopefully." With that, Sakura left the Rose Mansion, and her friends, and went to meet Lance outside the gates to the school.

"What happened?" Lance asked, seeing Sakura's less than happy expression.

"I don't want to talk about it," Sakura said, "let's just leave already alright? Before I change my mind."

"Okay, but where are we going to go?" Lance asked as they started walking to the train station, handing Sakura her bag which she had telepathically asked him to go get while she was with her friends, as they walked.

"Onee-sama has a second apartment a couple towns over, we can go there." Sakura answered, taking her bag from Lance that, for some reason, felt a little heavier than when she gave it to him.

"Okay, I guess that's the best we can do for now." Lance agreed as they got on the train and completed the long ride in silence.

When they got to the apartment, Sakura fished a key out of her pocket and opened the door to the spacious, two-bedroom, two-bathroom, apartment. She quickly claimed the bedroom on the right and dumped the contents of her bag onto the bed. That was when she noticed the package. It was small, about the size of a paperback book, and had her name written on it in black ink. She studied the cursive and, upon recognizing it, paled.

"Lance!" She managed to call out, loud enough for him to hear her. "Can you come in here for a minute?"

"What's up?" Lance asked, appearing in the doorway looking calm and nonchalant.

"Do you know how this got into my bag?" Sakura asked, holding up the package so that Lance could see the easily recognizable cursive written on it.

"Yea, actually I do," Lance said, taking the package from her and opening it to withdraw a letter written in the same black ink and cursive as the address on the package. "Your cousin, Suguru I think he called himself, gave it to me while you were dealing with your friends and said that his dad wanted you to have it, that there was something very important about it."

"Well let's see what is so important that he had to give it to me through Suguru then," Sakura said, taking the letter from Lance and walking out towards the living room where she promptly sat on the couch, Lance taking a seat beside her to read over her shoulder. Hating the fact that Lance was trying to read over her shoulder, Sakura decided to read the letter from her uncle out loud.

Dear Sakura,

I hope this letter finds you and Lance well and in some sort of control of your powers. You both know already how much I am sorry for what has happened to you both, so I will not re-iterate it for you. However, I will explain what the contents of the box enclosed with this letter is supposed to do for you. As you will see, the box contains a small flask of a silver-blue liquid, we do not have a name for it yet as it has only just been newly developed, but it is supposed to help you, or rather, one of you as there is not enough in that bottle for the both of you. What it does is, in our minds, quite simple: it will take away some of your powers that you received when you became Draconians and make you almost human. I say almost because it does not take away the superior strength, speed and senses that becoming a Draconian gave you. In other words, if one of you drinks it, you will be free of the responsibilities that have descended upon you against your will, you will become human again. Make your decision for who shall drink it carefully and wisely for the effects cannot be reversed.

Be safe,

Your Uncle

"Well that was almost no help at all," Lance said after a few minutes of silence after Sakura finished. "How are we supposed to decide who gets to become human again?"

"I don't know," Sakura answered truthfully, withdrawing the bottle from the package and examining it.

"I think you should," Lance said, making Sakura almost drop the vial from surprise.

"What?!" She asked, whipping around to face Lance. "You think I should drink it?!"

"No, what I mean is that I think you should be the one to decide which of us gets to become human again," Lance said, calming Sakura down instantly.

"Oh," Sakura said, looking at the bottle again. "If you really think I should, then I will, but I'm not going to make this decision right here, right now. I'm going to take uncle's advice and consider every possible angle to make a careful and wise decision."

"Good idea," Lance agreed. "In the meantime, you need to get some sleep, I know telling your friends, and your sister, that they might never see you again was something you were not looking forward to in the slightest."

"Okay," Sakura agreed and, still holding the bottle of whatever it was that would turn one of them mostly human, got up, went to her room, closed the door, flopped onto her bed and fell asleep.

Sakura woke up to the sound of voices. Quietly, she got up out of bed and tiptoed towards the door of her bedroom which was slightly ajar. She peered through the crack to see Lance just sitting on the couch and apparently talking to himself, the blue glow from his laptop screen lighting his silouette.

"I really don't know what to do." Lance was saying. "Why on earth did you only make enough serum for one person?"

"Because it is still experimental, besides, there has to at least be one of you around to stop my father after the other drinks the serum."

It took Sakura a moment to realize that Lance was not talking to himself, he was talking to her uncle via the laptop computer sitting on the table in front of him.

"My question to you is why you told Sakura to be the one to decide who stays Draconian and who becomes human again." Sakura's uncle continued.

"Because it seemed only fair!" Lance exclaimed. "She has lost so much more than me because of your stupid experiments. She lost everything! Her home, her family, her friends, and most important to her, she lost her sister. I never had any of that in the first place. My home was that god-awful orphanage, my family was dead, my friends consisted of ripped and torn plush toys and I never had any siblings."

"So you thought it would be fair to her to decide herself because she would have something to go back to if she became human again, is that it?"

"Yes." Lance replied.

"And yet, you wish to become human again more than anything, correct?"

"Yes."

"So why don't you just tell her? Why don't you just forget all this drama and pretend that the two of you are exactly the same? Drop your stupid pride and chivalry and go and tell her 'Hey, I know I told you to make this decision, but, if it is at all possible, could you see it in your heart to choose me over yourself? Because I know you have much more to gain by becoming human again than I do, but all I ever wanted was to be a normal, human, boy. Nothing more, nothing less.' Why the hell don't you do that?"

"I told you, it's because I want to be fair and actually give her a chance to have her old life back!" Lance exclaimed in exasperation.

"Kid, nothing, not even becoming human again, can give my niece her old life back. My brother was a downright fool, and a cruel one at that, to disown his daughter the way he did. He didn't even think of the repercussions his actions could have, like my niece hating her own sister and despising the rest of her family even more. The fact of the matter is that, even if she became human again, she could never, actually she probably would never, go back to her old family and her old life ever again, even if my brother invited her back."

"This is all just too confusing for me." Lance said, putting his head in his hands.

"Which is exactly why you made the right choice in dumping the responsibility of deciding who gets to be human again on Sakura. She is much more level-headed when it comes to tough decisions like this than you are. You may want to become human more than she probably ever will, but she has had something for a very long time, something that you have only just gained recently."

"What's that?" Lance asked.

"Someone to look out for and to watch their back as well as someone who will look out for her and watch her back, when she needs it that is."

"I don't understand." Lance said, sounding more confused by the minute.

"Maybe not now, but someday soon, everything I have just told you, along with other things, will become clear as crystal and as plain as the nose on your face. You just have to have a little faith. That's all it takes."

Sakura watched as the blue glow on the computer screen went black as the conversation ended. She watched as Lance, obviously still confused, stretched his arms and headed towards his room to get some much-needed rest of his own. Sakura watched the light in Lance's room go out and then quietly closed her door and crept back to bed where she was left, sleepless, to ponder all that she had learned about the feelings, and past, of one of her best friends.


	11. Hostages

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: See Chapter One

The next few days were, as far as Sakura was concerned, quite boring. Nothing happened, there was no word from Sakura's uncle regarding her grandfather's hunt for them, Lance kept undercover when he went to buy groceries and Sakura had yet to make up her mind about what to do with her uncle's serum. Finally, after looking at every possible angle, and considering what she had overheard during the conversation between Lance and her uncle, Sakura made up her mind and made the decision about which of them got the serum.

"Hey Lance," Sakura called, retrieving the bottle from the cabinet in her bedroom and returning to the living room where she had been reading earlier.

"Yea?" Lance called back, wondering what on earth Sakura wanted.

"Come into the living room, I've made a decision." She sat down on the couch and waited for Lance.

"Made a decision? About the serum?" Lance asked, entering from the kitchen where he had been preparing their lunch.

"Yea, I did." Sakura answered, motioning Lance to take the seat across from her.

"And?" Lance asked, sitting down and not letting the hope he was feeling enter his voice.

"Here." Sakura passed him the bottle and sat back as Lance looked at it incredulously.

"What? You're..." Lance was too shocked to speak.

"I considered every possible angle and based my decision on that." Sakura stated. "I realized that I don't need to become human, nor do I want to become human, because I have people who care about me for me and don't give a damn that I'm not like them. Also, I feel that I can do a lot more good in this world as a Draconian than I can as a human. Besides," she held up a finger silencing Lance's attempted protests, "didn't you always tell me that all you ever wanted was to be a normal teen, to go to school, goof off and talk about girls with your friends? You told me once that you were orphaned when you were a kid, thus was never normal. This is your chance to become that teen that you wished to be. You won't have my grandfather coming after you and you won't have any of the responsibilities that we have now when we shouldn't." Sakura leaned back to study Lance's reaction, and then continued. "I won't force you to drink it of course, the choice is entirely yours. However, I will warn you now that if you do, or don't, take this chance, I will not be drinking that serum ever, so don't even think about being chivalrous and telling me to drink it."

"I...I...wow, Sakura, you make this tough on a guy you know." Lance said, looking at Sakura who had to keep herself from laughing.

"I know," Sakura said, smiling slightly, "but you have to realize that I have been thinking about this these past few days and came to the conclusion myself."

"Well, I wouldn't want to waste all the brain and willpower it took for you to come to this conclusion, so I will comply with your wishes."

"You will?" Sakura asked, surprised, she thought it would have been harder to convince Lance to drop the chivalry and drink the serum himself.

"I will." To prove his point, Lance transformed into his Draconian form and downed the serum in one go.

Meanwhile...

Yumi sighed, it had been at least a week since Sakura had come to tell her friends good-bye and the mood within the Rose Mansion, and the Yamayurikai themselves, had changed drastically. Sachiko was constantly worrying, Shimako was quieter than usual, Youko and Eriko didn't seem to be putting as much effort into meetings anymore, Rei hadn't baked anything in a long time and even Sei and Yoshino had become more subdued in their antics. Yumi herself was quite worried about her friend as well and was constantly thinking about where Sakura might be now.

"Yumi?" Yumi stopped her depressing thoughts and looked across the table to Yoshino who looked concerned. Before she could reply, however, the door to the meeting room burst open and the Yamayurikai were immediately surrounded by men with guns in black uniforms.

"What is the meaning of this?" Sachiko, who had stood up with the rest of the Yamayurikai when the door burst open, demanded, glaring at the men in black.

"Our apologies miss," one of the men said, "we did not mean to come in here so suddenly unannounced, but we are under orders to bring the group of you back to the Ogasawara household."

"And why is that?" Sachiko asked, ignoring the sinking feeling in her stomach.

"For your protection miss," a second man answered, "your grandfather has discovered a plot against him and believes that the plotters may use you as a hostage to get to him."

"I see, and why must the others join me?" Sachiko asked, the sinking feeling getting stronger.

"Because your grandfather believes that, if the plotters can't get you directly, they may use them to get to you and use you to get to him." A third man answered.

"Very well, we'll go back to the mansion with you." Sachiko reluctantly agreed, giving the others a look that said 'keep quiet about Sakura and follow my lead'. The Yamayurikai nodded discreetly and, without any resistance, allowed the men to load them into black BMWs and drive to the Ogasawara's place.

Sakura watched as Lance began to glow a soft white and his Draconian form gradually disappeared until all that was left was the human Lance with a set of white wings and a silver sword hanging at his hip.

"Huh?" Sakura asked, standing up and tugging on Lance's wings and inspecting the blade. "I thought the serum was supposed to get rid of most Draconian traits, except for the heightened senses and strength."

"I guess the wings are part of the deal with keeping those traits." Lance said. "But I definitely can't create fire out of thin air anymore," he demonstrated for Sakura who nodded in affirmation, "and my Draconian form does not include the armour, I still have the sword though, so I would say that your uncle's serum worked."

"But what about the wings?" Sakura asked. "What are you going to do about those?"

"They're easy to hide," Lance answered, shrugging his shoulders, "if I get sick of it, I can always go to your uncle and see if he can surgically remove them."

"I guess that could work," Sakura said, thoughtfully still wondering why the wings didn't disappear. Before they could ponder the effects of the serum any longer, they heard a scraping sound and looked towards the front door to see an envelope lying in front of it, obviously have been pushed through the crack under the door.

"What's that?" Lance asked as Sakura walked over and picked up the envelope.

"It's a letter," Sakura said, pointing out the obvious and realizing that the slanted, black handwriting on the envelope was her uncle's.

"No, really?" Lance asked sarcastically while Sakura opened the envelope and withdrew the letter, written in the same black handwriting as the address on the envelope did.

"Sakura," it read, "I have just received word that Sachiko, and the other members of the Lillian Yamayurikai, are to be staying at the main Ogasawara mansion. Apparently, you grandfather has discovered some sort of plot against him and he is bringing them there and leaving them in the underground areas under high security (bodyguards, men with guns, laser beams etc.), for their own protection, at least that is what I have been told. I, however, do not believe a word of it. Something fishy is going on so expect a letter from my father sometime soon. Please, be careful and deal with that serum ASAP. Your Uncle."

"What's it mean?" Lance asked, reading the paper over Sakura's shoulder.

"Trouble." Sakura stated, paling and tossing the letter in the trash.

"What's wrong?" Lance asked, noticing Sakura's anger and trying not to get himself in trouble with her.

"WHAT'S WRONG?!" Sakura exclaimed, rounding on Lance. "What's wrong?!" She repeated, beginning to pace the room. "Everything's wrong! My sister and my friends are practically hostages in her own house and...OH MY GOD!" She turned towards Lance, face pale and eyes wide. "Hostages! That's it! They're not in the underground area at Sachiko's house under high security 'for their own protection'! They're hostages! And the letter from my grandfather he mentioned must be his terms for letting them go free and...!" She was interrupted when the scraping sound returned and a second letter appeared from under the door. Sakura raced over, ripped open the envelope and read the enclosed letter before angrily shoving it in Lance's face and continuing to pace the room.

Lance looked down at the piece of paper in his hand. "Sakura," it said, "I'm not going to beat around the bush because I know that you know who I am and I also know that you know what I'm informing you about. As you have probably already figured out, I have Sachiko and your other little friends as hostages in the main mansion so that I can keep a close eye on them. What I want from you, in order to free them unharmed, is simple. I want you, or Lance, whichever one of you is still a Draconian (yes I know about my second son's serum) to pledge your loyalty and obedience to me. That is all. Come here and do that, and your friends are released unharmed. I look forward to your visit."

"Wow," Lance said, handing the letter back to Sakura who promptly ripped it up and threw it in the trash, "never one to waste time is he, your grandfather?"

"No," Sakura agreed, still pacing.

"So what are you going to do then?" Lance asked, already knowing the answer.

"I'm going to go," Sakura said, stopping her pacing and facing Lance with a determined look, "but I'm not going to agree to his terms."

"You're going to break them out and deal with him once and for all?" Lance asked, knowing what his friend was like.

"Naturally," Sakura said, smirking. "I'm going to give him the fight of his life."

"Here we go again," Lance said, sighing as he realized they were going to attempt something stupid and remembered what happened the last time Sakura got that look in her eyes. The two of them were barely four years old and Lance had dared her to jump off the roof of her uncle's house and fly. Sakura took on that dare and, with a determined look in her eye, climbed to the roof and jumped off. Unfortunately, she had not been old enough for her wings to work and she wound up breaking her arm and receiving a scolding from her uncle.

"Oh no you don't," Sakura said, glaring at Lance, "You're not a Draconian anymore, so you probably don't heal at the same rate that you used to. I'm not going to have you die because I decided to go against my grandfather's wishes."

"And I'm not going to have you go walking into a, possible, trap by yourself," Lance retorted. "Besides, I can still fly and I can still fight," he pointed out, indicating his wings and sword.

"Fine," Sakura said, going into her room and getting her bag, "but I'm only agreeing because I don't have the time, or the will, to argue with you."

"Didn't think you did," Lance said, smirking, as he followed Sakura out the door.

At the Ogasawara mansion, Sakura and Lance snuck around the back and climbed the wall. After dropping down to the ground on the other side, they scurried past the guards that, undoubtedly, had been positioned by Sakura's grandfather and made it to an oak tree in the middle of the grounds.

"What are we doing here?" Lance asked as Sakura began lightly tapping the tree in different places.

"This is another entrance," Sakura explained, tapping the tree three times in a particular spot before a hidden door swung open. "It'll take us right to where grandfather is supposed to be holding Sachiko and the others."

"If you say so," Lance said, following her as she entered the hollowed out tree before the door swung closed behind them.

"I found this place a long time ago when I was a kid," Sakura told Lance as they followed a winding passageway. "No one else knows about it, so it's the perfect entrance for us who want to get in without getting noticed.

"I see," Lance said, it was all he could think of to say.

After what seemed like forever to Lance, Sakura stopped and opened a large door quietly. She poked her head out, looked around and crept out, motioning for Lance to follow her. Once he was out, Sakura quietly closed the door and surveyed the scene. They were standing along a side wall in what seemed to be a large antechamber made of metal. There were beams all along the ceiling and a carpet on the floor in the middle of the room. On the walls on either side of them, there were alcoves and shelves of books and weapons and on the wall across from them was a large set of double doors. Skirting around the carpet that she knew hid a trap door; Sakura led Lance to the double doors. Giving him a look out of the corner of her eye, she threw the doors open to reveal a scene that made her blood boil with fury.

The room they had just entered had the look of a great hall in a medieval castle. There were four long tables on either side of the room and a dark red carpet led to a slightly raised platform at the far end. There were torch brackets along the walls and on the platform sat a large throne-like chair. It wasn't the room itself, or the decor, that made Sakura so mad, it was the fact that, along the far wall, at an angle to the throne, there were wrist chains hanging from it and hanging from those chains were people, people Sakura recognized.

"Sakura, are they...?" Lance asked, as Sakura walked quickly, but quietly, over to the people chained to the wall.

"Yea..." Sakura whispered, the fear and hatred clearly evident in her voice as she looked at the unconscious forms of the Lillian Yamayurikai hanging from their wrists in front of her.

"Who did this to them?" Lance asked, watching Sakura go from one girl to the other and checking each and every pulse.

"I would have thought that would have been an easy guess." Sakura and Lance whirled around at the sound of a haughty, male voice. Out of the shadows of the corner across from them stepped the man Sakura hated most in the entire world. Her grandfather.


	12. Fight for Freedom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: See Chapter One

"What did you do to them?" Sakura demanded, glaring at her grandfather as she stepped between him and Lance.

"Nothing much," her grandfather replied, walking towards her, "I merely had them brought here and when they fell asleep I had my men inject them with sleeping drafts, courtesy of my second son."

"And what did you threaten him with then?" Sakura asked, not bothering to mask the vehemence in her voice.

"The death of the last Draconian," her grandfather replied simply. "Don't worry though, I have no intention of harming your friends or the pair of you."

"Really?" Sakura asked, beginning to glow, a furious glare on her face, "because I have every intention of harming you!" With that, the white light that had been gathering around her flashed brilliantly and in the next instant Sakura had traded her jeans and blouse for the sky blue gown and silver chest and shoulder armour. The wings on her back were partially folded, allowing her hair, which was a silvery-white as her transformation had begun to wear off, to fall down her back. Her tattoos, now fading, seemed to burn with light and her silver-gray eyes smoked with fury as she unleashed her transformation.

"I take it that you are not going to listen to what I have to say then?" Her grandfather asked nonchalantly.

"There is no room for negotiation here," Sakura stated simply. "Not after what you did."

"Then you leave me no choice but to eliminate you," her grandfather said, pulling a sabre out of his cane.

"Go ahead and try!" Sakura challenged, unfurling her wings to their full length and leaping into the air. "That is, if you can catch me!" With that, she sped towards the room, the antechamber with books and weapons along the walls, that she and Lance had entered first, her grandfather cursing and chasing after her.

As she flew, Sakura tried to reach Lance telepathically. *Lance,* she said, *Lance, can you hear me?*

*Yea, I can hear you,* Lance replied, pleased that he still retained his telepathic abilities.

*While I distract him, I need you to free everyone,* Sakura explained *wake them up if possible.*

*Sure thing,* Lance replied, *I know of the sleeping draft he used on them, waking them up should be no problem.*

*Good, once they're awake, get them out of here. Things are going to get ugly... garunteed.* Sakura ended her contact with Lance just in time to spin around and face her grandfather who had followed her into the room.

"Sakura, don't do this," he said, slowing his pace to a walk. "You're just making things more difficult, for you and for me."

"Yea right," Sakura scoffed, glaring down at her grandfather. "The only thing that's getting more difficult for you is dealing with your competition."

"Something I wouldn't have if you would come back and join me," he pointed out.

"Yea, something you wouldn't have if I came back and let you force me to murder people like you did last time," Sakura stated with complete disgust. "In case you didn't get the memo: I'm. Not. Coming. Back."

"Very well then," he sighed, straightening out the collar of his dress shirt. "It seems that no matter what I do, you refuse to be a smart girl and do as you're told. I guess I'm just going to have to force you to come back then." He stated, pulling a sword out of his cane, which appeared to be hollow.

"I'd like to see you try," Sakura said, grabbing hold of a silver sword and shield that matched her armour that appeared out of thin air.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," her grandfather advised, taking a fighting stance like an expert.

"Bring it on," Sakura stated, taking her own stance. In a split second, both of them went flying at each other and their swords clashed in mid-air for the first time. The battle had begun.

Meanwhile...

"Who the hell are you?"

Lance, figuring out that he was in the basement of the Ogasawara Mansion, had quietly entered the lab Sakura's uncle used for his experiments and taken the antidote to the sleeping potion that had been injected into Sakura's friends. He immediately went back to the room where the girls were still hanging from chains and injected the antidote into each of them before beginning to unlock their chains. As soon as he had her on the floor, the tall blonde with a rude mouth woke up fully and started interrogating him.

"My name is Lance," Lance said patiently, unlocking the wrists of a girl with short black hair.

"Well, Lance, what are you doing here? Do you work for the sleaze bag that brought us here in the first place?" The blonde asked, keeping up her tirade of questions.

"What does it look like I'm doing here?" Lance asked exasperatedly, placing the last girl, a blonde with short hair like a boy's, on the floor as the others started to wake up. "I'm getting you out of here, and I wouldn't be doing that if I was working for him," he explained, putting emphasis on the last word.

"Then who do you work for?" The girl with short black hair asked, helping to revive the rest of the group.

"I don't work for anybody," Lance replied, seeing the disbelief on the girls' faces he shrugged. "If I work for anybody, I would be working for Sakura." Lance amended.

"Sakura? What about Sakura? Do you know her? Where is she? Is she alright?" Another girl, whom Lance assumed was Sachiko, asked in a panic.

"Calm down," Lance said, putting his hands up as if to halt the barrage of questions. "Yes I know Sakura, I grew up with her since she and I were the first Draconians. However now Sakura is the only Draconian."

"What? Why is that?" Sachiko asked, confused.

"Sakura had me drink the serum that her uncle created; it takes away most Draconian powers and some traits, though not all." Lance said, unconsciously casting a sideways glance to his back. "Anyway, I have to get you all out of here."

"Why?" The blonde who had begun the interrogation asked.

"Because Sakura told me to," Lance stated simply.

"Then she is alive?" A girl with brown hair in two pigtails asked him, worry clearly written on her face.

"Yes, she's alive and she's buying us time so let's move quickly," Lance suggested.

"How is she buying us time?" Sachiko asked, worry and foreboding evident in her voice.

"You don't want to know," Lance said, "but the sooner I get you girls out of here, the sooner I can get back there and help her."

"Alright, so where do you suggest we go?" Sachiko asked, getting right to the point.

"Well, I don't know how to get out of here without crossing paths with Sakura, something I'm sure she doesn't want to happen, so I guess I could take you to the lab," Lance decided, thinking that the safest place for the girls, besides outside, would be the lab with its super strong, stainless steel walls and protection against any experimental mishap.

"I know where that is," Sachiko said.

"Good, take everyone there then, and whatever you do, don't touch anything," Lance said, nodding before turning around and exiting through the door Sakura and her grandfather had passed through only moments ago.

Meanwhile...

Sakura blocked another blow from her grandfather. After the initial clash of metal on metal, the two of them had been trading blows back and forth for a good half an hour, neither of them relenting or showing signs of slowing down.

*Sakura,* Sakura heard the mental call just as her own blow was blocked by her grandfather.

*I'm a little busy here Lance,* Sakura replied, dodging another blow. *This better be important.*

*Your sister and friends are fine. They went to the lab,* Lance explained as Sakura sent a blow that was blocked, again.

*Good,* Sakura replied, spinning around and parrying the counter-attack that came her way. *Stay with them and keep them safe.*

"Too late to tell me that," Sakura looked to her left and spotted Lance who had just entered through the door and barely managed to dodge her grandfather's next attack. Sakura rolled to avoid her grandfather's sword, jumped into the air and came to land beside Lance.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Sakura asked, keeping an eye on her grandfather but watching Lance draw his sword out of the corner of her eye.

"Saving your life," Lance retorted, taking a fighting stance. "You're tired, I can see it. So is he for that matter," he indicated her grandfather, doubled over trying to catch his breath. "I'll hold him off for a little bit so you can check on your sister and friends. It'll let me wear him down while you recuperate enough to finish this once and for all."

"I don't have time to argue with you, so I won't," Sakura said, sighing as she turned to leave. Before she did, she turned around and hugged Lance. "Be careful," she whispered in his ear, "and don't get killed."

"I won't," Lance said, smiling a little. "I promise." Sakura nodded at that statement and took off, just as her grandfather charged Lance. She heard the sound of metal clashing against metal and prayed to Maria-Sama that Lance would be okay.

"What is taking them so long?" Yoshino asked for the billionth time.

"You've said that about a hundred times already," Rei pointed out.

"Well I can't help it," Yoshino retorted beginning to pace. "That Lance guy took off to find Sakura almost an hour ago!"

It was true. After Lance had gone off after Sakura, Sachiko had taken the Yamayurikai to the lab Lance had mentioned to wait for them. However, after half an hour of nothing, everyone started to worry. Sei was not her usual joking self, Shimako was barely showing any emotion, Eriko was not staring into space, Rei was fiddling with her hands, Yoshino had become irritable and Youko was keeping an eye on Sachiko and Yumi, both of whom had not uttered a single word since Sachiko reiterated what Lance had said previously about not touching anything in the lab.

"Yes, but maybe it's taking them a little time to get here," Eriko, being reasonable, pointed out.

"Yes, after all, Sakura probably hasn't been down here for at least ten years," Youko added, joining the conversation.

"If only she wasn't so stubborn," Yoshino vented. "If she had taken the offer to go back immediately, we would not be in this mess in the first place."

"You're right, you wouldn't be in this mess," the Yamayurikai turned towards the door at the voice. "You would probably be either in a worse situation...or dead." Sakura stated, entering the room.

"Sakura!" Sakura was almost knocked off her feet as both Sachiko and Yumi hurled themselves at her, embracing her in a bone-crushing hug.

"Thank Maria-Sama you're okay!" Sachiko uncharacteristically exclaimed.

"Don't thank her," Sakura wheezed, trying to breathe despite the two people clinging to her like she would disappear if they let go. "Thank Lance," Sakura's statement got everyone's attention.

"Why would we do that?" Yoshino, still irritable, asked.

"Well, for one thing, he sent you to the safest place in this whole house in case something happened," Sakura explained. "For another, he forced me to take a break from fighting so that one: I could come see you, and two: so that I could recuperate and get enough strength back to finish this once and for all."

"Wait a minute," Sei said, holding up a hand. "What do you mean 'take a break from fighting'?"

"Who were you fighting?" Eriko asked.

"My grandfather," Sakura stated simply.

"WHAT?!" Yumi exclaimed, not believing what she was hearing and hugging Sakura even tighter.

"Is that what Lance meant when he said that you were 'buying us time'?" Sachiko asked, finally letting go of Sakura.

"Yea, see you guys were still unconscious by the time Lance and I got here and..." Sakura started.

"How did you know where we were in the first place?" Shimako asked, cutting Sakura off.

"I got a letter, nothing short of a threat, from my grandfather earlier today," Sakura explained, unperturbed at being interrupted. "It explained that the eight of you were in 'a safe place' for your 'own protection', I immediately knew where he had taken you and came straight here."

"You mean you walked right into a trap," Youko stated.

"Nope," Sakura said, shaking her head. "I walked into a situation knowing what was going to happen and coming prepared for that fact. I was able to take a secret entrance that only I knew about until today, skirt a trapdoor hidden by a carpet, find you and buy Lance enough time to wake you up and get you out of harm's way." Sakura explained, shrugging. "All in all, I think it's playing out pretty well, except for the fact that I haven't finished with my grandfather yet, something I was hoping to do quickly. Sadly, his skill as a swordsman has improved slightly, making him harder to beat. Speaking of which," Sakura looked towards the door as she pried Yumi, off of her. "I better get back, I have no idea how much Lance can take before he collapses since he no longer has many of the Draconian traits. I'm rested enough now to finish this."

"What about us?" Yumi asked.

"You can't just expect us to let you go," Sei pointed out.

"Yes, I can," Sakura said. "I'm much stronger than all of you right now and I don't want to have to worry about you guys while I'm fighting. So just do me, and the rest of you, a favour and get yourselves out of here. Sachiko can take you wherever you need to get to in order to get out in one piece. Lance and I will follow as soon as we can."

With that, Sakura nodded to her friends, turned around, and sprinted back the way she had come. After a few minutes of silence, Sachiko straightened herself up and headed for the door as well.

"Where are you going?" Rei asked her friend.

"I'm following Sakura," Sachiko stated, determination in her eyes.

"But Sakura told us to get out of here," Yumi said, beginning to get worried at the look in Sachiko's eyes.

"I know, but do you really want to let her face a weak Lance and our grandfather all alone?" Sachiko asked, turning to the others.

"No," Yumi said, the others agreeing with her unanimously.

"Then it's settled," Sachiko said. "We follow Sakura and make sure all of us get out of here alive.


	13. The End of Everything

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: See Chapter One

Sakura flew down the hall towards the antechamber where she left Lance, literally. Her wings were tired and the rest of her body ached, but she forced herself to go faster. After she had left her friends in the care of her sister she began to walk down the hall, that is, she walked, until she felt Lance's telepathic consciousness begin to weaken and she panicked.

*I knew I shouldn't have let him stay and fight,* she thought angrily to herself as she flew.

*I knew he wasn't strong enough to do this on his own, Maria-Sama, I hope he's okay,* with this thought in her head, she flew faster and watched the walls zoom past her as she went to help her friend.

Lance entered the great hall where he and Sakura had first found her friends. He was bleeding from a sword wound in his side, a shallow slice along his back and a scrape along his temple. Wiping the blood from his eyes so he could see, Lance hobbled across the room and collapsed behind the large chair. He felt Sakura's telekinetic presence and knew she was close, he just hoped she was close enough. His breathing became heavier and he had to force himself to breathe quietly enough to hear the footsteps of Sakura's grandfather as he too, entered the room Lance was hiding in.

"Come out boy!" The demand sent shivers up Lance's spine, and he hoped Sakura would get there sooner rather than later.

"Come out and fight like a man!" The comment shot a jolt of anger and resentment through Lance, but he forced himself to stay where he was.

The footsteps came closer and closer, then they stopped to Lance's left. Lance looked to his left and saw Sakura's grandfather looking around the side of the chair and smiling when he saw Lance.

"Found you," he said, smirking, before swinging his sword towards Lance.

Sakura made it to the antechamber, but did not see Lance, or her grandfather, anywhere. She searched with her mind and felt Lance's presence in the room where they had found the Yamayurikai and sprinted there as fast as she could. No sooner had she opened the door than she saw Lance, hiding behind the large chair at the end of the hall, and her grandfather.

"Found you," she heard her grandfather tell Lance, before he unsheathed his sword.

Sakura didn't even think, she leaped into the air and crossed the space to where Lance was in a flash. She threw herself at Lance, knocking him out of the way of her grandfather's sword that would have dealt a killing blow, but didn't have enough time to get herself out of the way as well. She heard the rip of fabric and felt metal touch skin as her back exploded with pain. She dropped to the floor and rolled away, positioning herself between Lance and her grandfather.

"HOW DARE YOU!" Sakura yelled through her pain. "I am the one you want! Leave him out of it!"

"Sakura, you're bleeding!" Lance pointed out the obvious.

"So are you," Sakura shot back, her gaze never leaving that god-awful smirk of her grandfather's "so shut up and let me handle this."

"But-" Lance began.

"Better listen to the Draconian, boy," Sakura's grandfather suggested. "She's in worse shape than you, but she heals faster than you or I could. I'll let you run away this time because you yourself wounded me," here he indicated a long cut along his left arm, "and that is something to be commended on."

"Shut up," Sakura told her grandfather, "and let's finish this once and for all."

"It will be-" her grandfather never got the chance to finish his sentence before Sakura was after him, sword swinging and fury burning in her eyes.

Lance watched with horror as Sakura and her grandfather exchanged blows. This time, Sakura, with her back ripped open, was at the disadvantage. Compared to her grandfather, Sakura's swordsmanship was at a lower level, but she made up for it with her speed and accuracy, both of which were impaired because she had arrived and tried to save Lance, but injured herself instead.

*I've got to do something,* Lance thought, as he watched Sakura give her grandfather a long slash on his left leg and receive a deep stab in her side in return. *Or Sakura will die.*

Sakura retreated from her grandfather, standing a few feet away, in order to catch her breath. Her grandfather was tiring, but not as much as she was. Along with the gash on his arm that Lance had given him, Sakura added a leg wound, a cut along his cheek and a shallow slash across the chest. Sakura, however, had not fared so well. In addition to the gash that stretched from her right shoulder to left hip, Sakura had gained a stab wound in her right side, a cut along her left arm, another stab wound in her back and a small scrape along her temple. She had no idea where Lance had gone and she hoped that he was safe.

*I have to finish this now,* Sakura thought. "Next blow ends everything," Sakura proposed out loud.

"Fine," her grandfather agreed as he and Sakura both took their next ready stances.

"GO!" Sakura shouted, and both she and her grandfather charged at each other, both willing their blow to be the one to end everything that they had been fighting against each for, for so many long years.

As Sakura charged, she saw something drop down in front of her, putting itself between her sword and her grandfather's. Sakura's eyes widened and she slid to a halt as her grandfather's sword penetrated the mass between them and blood splattered her face as she screamed for all she was worth.

"Did you hear that?" Yoshino asked. The Yamayurikai obediently followed Sachiko who led the way down the hall Sakura had sprinted down only minutes before. Three quarters of the way down Yoshino stopped, hearing something that the others missed.

"Hear what? Eriko asked, looking around for something.

"Yoshino, what is it?" Rei, ever the concerned onee-sama, asked but Yoshino shushed her.

"I hear it too," Shimako said, straining her ears to hear the sound. The entire group went quiet, each trying to hear whatever it was that their petite soeurs heard.

After a few minutes of silence, everyone heard it. It was a sound none of them had ever heard before and it confused them. Youko and Sei were looking down the hall with mixed expressions of confusion and worry while Eriko just looked interested. Shimako tried to hide the worry on her face while Rei showed it openly and Yoshino had to force herself not to look as freaked out as she felt. Only Sachiko and Yumi had turned white as sheets when they recognized the sound. Then, suddenly, the sound stopped and everyone looked at everyone else.

"What the hell was that?" Sei asked; voicing the question on everyone's mind, save for Yumi and Sachiko who continued to stare down the hallway in horror.

"I have no idea," Youko supplied, unhelpfully.

"Whatever it was, it didn't sound good," Eriko stated, still looking down the hall with interest.

"No really?" Yoshino asked sarcastically in an attempt to hide her fright.

"Yoshino!" Rei exclaimed, appalled at her petite soeur's behaviour to her onee-sama.

"What do you think it was?" Shimako, keeping calm despite her worry, asked.

"Sakura," both Yumi and Sachiko answered at the same time.

"What?" Youko asked, turning to her petite soeurs who had the same look of terror on their faces.

"That was Sakura," Sachiko said, disbelief evident in her voice.

"Sakura was screaming," Yumi added, fearfully. "Something really, really, really bad just happened."

"Then let's stop wasting our time here!" Sei said. Yumi and Sachiko nodded, and the group headed off in the direction of Sakura's screams at a frenzied, worried, run.

When they entered the room where the screaming had come from, a heart-wrenching scene met their eyes. Sakura, beat, black, blue and bloodied, was kneeling on the floor, her sword by her side and her grandfather standing in front of her; neither noticing the Yamayurikai's appearance. Sakura's head was down and tears were streaming from the eyes hidden beneath her bangs. She held something in her arms, tight to her chest. It took the Yamayurikai a moment to realize what she was holding, and when they did, they stifled their gasps of horror. Clutched to her chest, was the broken and bloodied form of Lance, a sword clutched in his hand and the hilt of another sword buried in his chest while a pair of snow white angel wings, now covered in blood, hung limply from his back. Right then and there, the Yamayurikai knew that Sakura's screams were not of physical pain. They were the cries of someone who had just lost their one and only true friend in the entire world.

Sakura stopped screaming and her cries were muffled to quiet sobs as she dropped her sword and caught Lance as he fell backwards toward her, her grandfather's sword protruding from his chest. She kneeled on the floor and lay Lance across her lap, her arms supporting his torso as tears, unbidden, fell from her fearful silver-grey eyes onto his face.

"Lance? Lance! Wake up! Lance!" Sakura cried, gripping her friend harder and harder each time she yelled at him.

"Stop yelling," came the feeble reply, as Lance opened his eyes to look at her. "I may be dying but I'm not deaf you know."

"Oh, Lance," Sakura said, relief flooding through her, but then dissipating as fast as it had come when she realized that Lance spoke the truth, he was dying and there was nothing she could do about it. "What the hell were you thinking?" She asked, stroking his hair.

"I was thinking about saving you," Lance said, struggling to breathe. "Listen, I don't have much time left, but I want you to know that I will be by your side,"

"Always there, but never close enough to see," Sakura said with him, remembering the last time he had said that to her was the first time she had seen him in over two years.

"Exactly," Lance agreed and then coughed, spewing up some blood as he did so. "Except this time, you will never see me, not before, not during, not after, but I will always be there for you. When you need me, and when you don't I will always be there...and I will always be a part of you. Promise me one thing though?" He asked, as his voice began to grow fainter.

"Anything," Sakura replied immediately, hugging Lance tighter to her as she did so.

"Never forget that I am, and always will be, with you and on your side." Lance said, bringing the hand that was not holding onto his sword up to cup Sakura's cheek.

"I won't," Sakura swore, to herself and to Lance.

"One more thing," Lance said, and Sakura had to bend over his head to hear him. As she did so, Lance moved his head slightly and kissed her sweetly on the lips. "Don't forget me," he said, breaking the kiss.

Then, slowly, he leaned his head on Sakura's shoulder, a soft smile gracing his face, as his body went limp and he breathed his very last breath. Sakura, feeling his body go limp in her arms, held him close, buried her face in the crook of his neck and let the tears flow, crying out with heart-wrenching sobs and gasping for air. After a little while, Sakura's sobs quieted, her breathing became normal and her tears dried up. She didn't even notice that the Yamayurikai had entered the room shortly after her sobbing had quieted.

"Foolish boy," her grandfather said, breaking the silence that always accompanies the first few moments after the death of a loved one. "He got what he deserved. He should never have tried to interrupt our fight in the first place."

"SHUT UP!" Sakura screamed, snapping her head up and leaping to her feet, snatching up her sword as she did so. Lance's death she could deal with, but her grandfather badmouthing him and telling her what he should and should not have done was the final straw. Sakura had snapped. The tattoos that had been fading from her skin returned full blown, the starkness of their dark colours contrasting wildly with her pale skin, blood splattered hair and wings and her rage-filled silver-grey eyes. The white aura that always surrounded her when she transformed appeared again and kept growing larger and brighter, exploding with the energy of Sakura's pent up fury.

Then, the aura started to move from around Sakura, seeping into her sword which sucked it up like a vacuum, and the sword began to glow as brilliantly as Sakura herself. Before her grandfather could even comprehend what was happening, Sakura pulled the sword towards her and, with a mighty thrust, shoved it forward as if she were stabbing her uncle. The bright aura that had been building up within and around the sword was released, in a bright laser-like beam of light headed straight towards her grandfather. It collided straight and true into the middle of his chest and, with an explosion that sent the whole basement shaking, sent him careening not just into the wall, but through it, and through all the walls between the room they were in and the lab Sakura had been in with her friends not even half an hour ago.

As soon as the room stopped shaking and the dust cleared enough for Sakura to see the form of her grandfather collapsed against the far wall of the lab, the aura around Sakura disappeared and she fell to the floor in pain and exhaustion.

"Sakura!" Sakura looked up and saw her friends of the Yamayurikai run over to her, she tried to stand up, but fell over again as Sachiko caught her.

"Are you okay?" Sei asked, uncharacteristically freaked out and concerned for the other girl.

"Idiot!" Yoshino exclaimed. "Of course she's not okay! She just lost her best friend in the world and is bleeding to death." At Yoshino's words everyone paled and started trying to inspect Sakura's wounds.

"Leave them," Sakura said tiredly. "As long as I get some rest, they'll be all healed up by tomorrow morning. I wish I could say the same for Lance though." Here she looked past her friends from school and once more took in the bloodied form of her best friend, dead on the floor of her grandfather's basement.

"What are you going to do about him?" Sachiko asked, though not unkindly.

"Send him off the way a Draconian that was as brave as he was deserves to be," Sakura stated. With the help of her sister and her friends, Sakura made her way over to kneel beside Lance. She pulled her grandfather's sword out of his chest and threw it away from her. She then pried Lance's own sword out of his hand and set it aside. She held her hands above his chest and concentrated on her healing powers. Her hands glowed with a soft silver light and Lance began to heal. His wounds closed up and the blood that covered his body disappeared.

Finally, as a last tribute, Sakura summoned her white aura once again and this time the aura moved from her to Lance. Right before the eyes of everyone, Lance's body glowed the way Sakura's did and disappeared in a shower of white lights. Once the light had vanished, everyone watched as a single, solitary, pure white feather the length of a hand floated down to land in Sakura's palm.

"I will never forget," Sakura whispered to herself and bowed her head while the rest of the Yamayurikai followed suit. After a minute of silence, Sakura stood up, sheathed her sword and Lance's and transformed out of her Draconian form.

"What are you going to do with the geezer?" Sei asked, breaking the silence and indicating Sakura's grandfather.

"I'm going to leave him," Sakura stated, much to the shock of everyone around her. "He's still alive, but he'll be unconscious for a while."

"So what are you going to do when he wakes up then?" Youko asked.

"I'm going to let him be," Sakura said.

"What?" Yoshino asked in disbelief.

"After all he's done to you? And us?" Eriko asked.

"Yeup," Sakura said, leading the way out of the room.

"Um, can I ask why?" Shimako asked.

"Because that last blast from me will have erased his memory, of me and Lance being Draconians, he'll still remember that he disowned me and such," Sakura explained. "He will never come after me, or my powers, ever again. I'll send uncle down here with a story for when he wakes up."

"What kind of story?" Yumi asked.

"Something along the lines of he came down here to check on my uncle's progress with his new lab when one of my uncle's apprentices asked him to take a jar of liquid in here. He tripped on his cane and dropped the jar, which broke at his feet and created an explosion so strong that it knocked him backwards through a few walls. Something like that," Sakura explained, leading the group through the door she and Lance had entered the basement through on their way in.

"And he'll buy it?" Sachiko asked doubtfully.

"Yeup, uncle's a good inventor, he'll come up with a believable story for someone working in a highly protected, highly expensive basement lab," Sakura shrugged her shoulders and they made it to the top. They exited from the hollow tree into the twilight and, one by one, climbed over the wall and were away from the Ogasawara mansion. They kept walking until they stopped in the park where Sakura had first shown her 'gifts' to Yumi and, ultimately, Sachiko.

"So where do we go from here?" Yoshino asked, once again voicing the question on everybody's mind.

"Well, now that the threat with my grandfather is over, I suppose I can go back to school with you guys and pretend that none of this ever happened. Of course, not having Lance around will make things harder, but I'll manage." Sakura said, shrugging her shoulders.

"And us?" Sei asked. "Are we supposed to forget that this all happened too?"

"No," Sakura sighed, "I won't force you to do that, but I do want you guys to keep what happened over the last week or so to yourselves okay? You've already seen what greed for my powers can do to a person, and to the people I care about. Don't you ever make me repeat this experience ever again. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Sei said, while the others nodded.

"Good, now go home and go to bed," Sakura said. "I have to rest up, heal my wounds and hold a proper ceremony for Lance tomorrow." Everyone nodded and headed off in different directions, everyone except for Sachiko and Yumi.

"Sakura?" Yumi asked timidly, watching her friend stare up at the night sky. "Are you okay?"

"I'll live," Sakura replied, tiredly. "Why do you ask?"

"Because you seem distant and you're not super upset about Lance's fate," Sachiko interjected.

"I know," Sakura said, continuing to stare at the star spattered sky and wondering if Lance was up there with the stars. "It's because of what Lance said to me, telepathically, before he died." Sakura explained.

"What did he say?" Yumi asked, curiosity getting the better of her as usual.

"Something special that I will keep close to my heart forever," Sakura said, smiling softly.

"And that was...?" Sachiko asked, her own curiosity growing along with Yumi's.

"That I wasn't allowed to mourn him," Sakura said, smiling a little more, "or else he'd come back down here as a poltergeist and haunt me until I learned."

"Learned what?" Yumi asked.

"Learned that it's not the end of everything, it's the beginning of something else. His door closed, but it opened mine just a little wider."Sakura said, turning towards her sister and friend and giving them a real, genuine, Sakura smile for the first time in years.

They smiled back at her and the three of them knew that, though it would be hard for Sakura to get over Lance's death, she still had her sister, her friends and Lance watching over her. Sakura knew that, with their love, support and guidance, everything would be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Hey, okay yes I know that it is almost not humanly possible to jump over a bannister and fall two stories down, landing gracefully and not breaking any bones and that this is really short, i apologize for that. And just to give you people a heads up, the character named Sakura that's in this fiction is the same character that appears in my Strawberry Panic fanfic (held one year later) that will be coming soon as well as the MGM and SP cross-over fanfic that is also on its way. Rate and Review please, constructive critism is welcome.


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